People on Tuesday expressed alarm over Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of a San Francisco lawyer known for fighting transgender rights and leading a group of right-wing lawyers who participated in the effort to overturn Trump. Among them were LGBTQ+ and voting rights advocates. He will oversee the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the 2020 presidential election.
On Monday, President Trump announced the nomination of Harmeet Dhillon to head his main civil rights agency, and on his Truth social network, the former vice chair of the California Republican Party tweeted, “I have consistently stood up to protect the.” We sued companies that censor our free speech, represent Christians who have been prevented from praying together due to COVID-19, and employ woke policies to discriminate against their employees. ”
President Trump added, “In his new role at the Department of Justice, Mr. Harmeet will be a tireless defender of constitutional rights and will fairly and decisively enforce civil rights and election laws.”
But prominent trans activist Erin Reed said on her Substack that Dillon’s nomination, which must be confirmed by the Senate, “is a huge relief to trans people across the country, including those who have taken refuge in blue states to escape anti-trans protests.” “This represents a worrying change that could make life increasingly difficult for people.” law”.
Reid continued:
Dillon’s most notable accomplishments include founding the Center for American Liberty, a legal organization focused on anti-transgender litigation in blue states. The group’s “Notable Cases” section features several cases, including Chloe Cole’s case against Kaiser Permanente. A lawsuit challenges a Colorado school’s use of a transgender student’s preferred name. Lawsuit against California school district seeking to implement policy to force transgender students out of school. and a lawsuit against the state of Vermont for denying foster care permits to families that did not follow anti-discrimination policies regarding transgender youth.
Reed also accused Dillon of “extreme anti-trans behavior” on social media, including attacks on state laws that protect transgender people and calling gender-affirming health care for transgender children “child abuse.” He emphasized that he expressed his “opinion.”
Last year, The Guardian’s Jason Wilson reported that the American Freedom Center paid a six-figure payment to a public relations firm that represented Dillion in both her “capacity as head of a for-profit law firm and as a Republican activist.” Reported.
Matt Cohen, writing for the voting rights platform Democracy Docket on Tuesday, accused Dillon of being “one of the leading lawyers working to dismantle voting rights across the country.”
“In recent years, Dillon or the attorneys at her law firm have been involved in more than a dozen different voting rights cases in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.” , redistricting, the election process, or President Trump’s efforts to get on the ballot in the 2024 election,” Cohen said.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement Tuesday, “The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division enforces our nation’s federal civil rights laws. “We have an important responsibility to ensure equal justice under the law” on behalf of our entire community. ”
“That means investigating police departments where there are patterns of police abuse, protecting voting rights, and making sure schools don’t discriminate against kids based on who they are,” Wiley noted. “The appointment of Harmeet Dhillon to lead this important civil rights office is another sign that this administration is advancing an ideological perspective on rights and protections that protects all people in this country. This is a clear sign.”
“Dillon has focused his career on curtailing civil rights, rather than enforcing or protecting them,” she argued. “Instead of fighting to expand access to voting, she has worked to limit it.”
Dillon, an ardent Trump supporter, also supports conspiracy theories, including the former president’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and that Democrats “conspired to commit the largest election interference fraud in the history of the world.” “It’s happening,” he said.
She was co-chairman of the Republican National Bar Association when it launched Lawyers for Trump, a group seeking intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the former president, who lost the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Cohen is also a right-wing legal activist and co-chairman of the Federalist Society, who Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) described as a “lawless swindler and swindler” for failing to respond to a Senate subpoena. He emphasized the relationship between Leonard Leo and Mr. Dillon. and his organization of lavish gifts to conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices.
“We need leaders in the Civil Rights Division who understand that civil rights protections are not partisan, nor are they political positions subject to the ideological whims of those seeking to advance a single religion,” Wiley said. he emphasized. . “We need leaders who will vigorously enforce civil rights laws and work to protect the rights of all communities, including voting, education, employment, housing, and public accommodations, without fear or favor.”
