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The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has directed its Civil Rights Division to halt ongoing litigation and refrain from initiating new cases as President Donald Trump embarks on a purge of federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in his first days in office.
This pause comes as Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer known for advocating conservative causes and serving as the GOP’s national committeewoman for California, awaits Senate confirmation to head the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“They are trying to eradicate civil rights,” Khadijah Silver, supervising attorney for civil rights at Lawyers For Good Government, said on LinkedIn. “And we must not stand for it.”
The memo directs Civil Rights Division supervisor Kathleen Wolfe to ensure that attorneys avoid filing “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.” According to the memo, the pause is being enacted to “ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases” and to guarantee “that the Federal Government speaks with one voice in its view of the law.”
The length of the suspension is unclear, but according to The Washington Post, it will likely incapacitate the division for at least the first few weeks of the Trump administration as it works through Senate confirmations for its appointees.
A second memo was also issued directing the agency to halt activities involving consent decrees and to notify the chief of staff about any finalized in the past 90 days. It noted that the incoming administration “may wish to reconsider” these agreements, suggesting the possibility of scrapping two consent decrees finalized during the closing weeks of the Biden administration in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This month, the Minneapolis City Council approved a consent agreement to reform the city’s police training and use-of-force policies in response to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. Likewise, the Justice Department announced last month that it had reached an agreement with Louisville to overhaul its police department following an investigation driven by the 2020 police shooting of Breonna Taylor and the department’s subsequent ill treatment of protesters. These agreements still require approval from a judge and are among 12 such probes into police departments initiated by the Civil Rights Division under Attorney General Merrick Garland.
This follows actions by the Trump administration that appear to weaken civil rights protections in the U.S. “The pausing of civil rights litigation is highly concerning, especially when combined with many government websites going dark that relate to civil rights,” LGBTQ legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout.
Earlier this week, Trump revoked an executive order designed to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors as part of a broader effort to dismantle federal diversity initiatives. Trump also recently rescinded an executive order by former President Joe Biden that had directed federal agencies to enforce the Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, which affirmed that discrimination against LGBTQ people is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“The Trump administration is quickly implementing Project 2025 and is targeting all minorities, while actively pardoning his followers and police officers,” Chapman said. “This is setting a precedent that it’s an all out war on minority groups and that if you commit a crime in the name of furthering his agenda, you will go unpunished.”
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