'Complete 180': How the DOJ has redefined its civil rights mission and targeted California

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Set us as preferred WASHINGTON — The U.S.Department of Justice civil rights division was created in 1957 with an initial focus on combating racial inequality and protecting voting rights.But in the first two years of President Trump’s second term, its mission has been reimagined.Now, the division is focused on combating diversity initiatives, rolling back pro-transgender policies and rooting out allegations of election fraud.It had for decades investigated police departments for using excessive force.

Now it investigates police departments with excessive delays in approving gun permits.California has served as the division’s laboratory for all of these changes, or, as one former civil rights staffer put it, its “punching bag.”The civil rights division has been involved in twice as many cases in California as in any other state, according to a Times analysis of cases brought by the Justice Department.And an examination of press statements by the civil rights division shows that California has accounted for a higher proportion of actions in the second Trump administration than during the same time period in the Biden administration.The division is led by Harmeet Dhillon, a Californian and a conservative legal crusader, who made her name bringing legal challenges against many of the state’s institutions and once served as the chair of the San Francisco Republican Party.More recently, she was a leading legal figure in challenges to COVID-19 mandates and has shown steadfast support for Trump; her firm represented him in his successful 2024 fight to remain on the ballot in Colorado.The Times spoke with a dozen former attorneys in the division, nearly all of whom said that the division has taken on a more partisan approach under Dhillon’s leadership and that the changes in the second Trump administration are far more ...