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President-elect Donald Trump’s Justice Department is set to go on the anti-woke offensive, reversing key diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives put in place by the department's Civil Rights Division, sources told CNN.
According to the sources familiar with the incoming administration's plans, Trump is set to fight against DEI with the help of conservative San Francisco attorney Harmeet Dhillon, the president-elect's pick to lead the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
If confirmed, Dhillon could dismantle the division's work relating to transgender rights, voting, policing, and more. The division is also expected to upend DEI policies at schools, government agencies, and other public institutions, according to the sources.
The Civil Rights Division was created in the 1950s to ensure the enforcement of federal laws aimed at combating housing, employment, education, voting, and other forms of discrimination.
Under Democratic administration, the division has been embroiled in high-profile civil rights battles, including investigations into police departments over claims of discrimination and brutality. Trump isn't expected to continue these types of investigations or pursue consent decrees, which require federal oversight of police departments.
Dhillon, upon confirmation, would be able to use the division to wage legal challenges against DEI policies in public schools and other state and local employers.
Trump, who announced Dhillon as his pick for DOJ head earlier this week, cited her work “suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers.”
Justin Levitt, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division under President Barack Obama, said the incoming administration will likely move toward ending policies aimed at helping minority groups.
“The Civil Rights Division’s historical mandate from the beginning was to help fight against othering, was to help fight against societal branding of certain Americans as other,” Levitt said. “And I am concerned the prospective nominee’s approach has been to lean into branding people as other rather than fighting against it.”
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