Monday, December 26, 2016

Trump could turn DOJ against civil rights, courts now critical battleground

Since the election of Donald Trump, many have been left worrying about what will happen if his administration actually turns his campaign promises into policy. One of the areas of most concern will be civil rights. Trump's threats to ban Muslims on the basis of religion, initiate mass deportations of Mexicans and to punish women for having abortions have ignited alarm among civil rights advocates and activists all around the country who are deciding where best to employ their resources in the resistance against Trump.

Although it is difficult to predict what the Trump administration actually plans to do, one can obtain a broad brush view of its intentions by Trump's recent choice of anti-civil rights advocate Jeff Sessions to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) as Attorney General. It may be helpful to take a look at how past Republican presidents have taken action in rolling back civil rights. Past Republican presidents have used their power over the DOJ in order to weaken its ability to protect civil rights via strategic personnel changes and redirecting the priorities of the civil rights division within the department, according to Samuel Bagenstos, law professor and former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ in a recent interview on The Majority Report.

A White House administration utilizing its power over the DOJ in order to serve its own ideological and political leanings is nothing new. In fact this has been going on since at least when Ronald Reagan was president, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. President George W. Bush's administration had run into controversy in his firing of a group of attorneys from the DOJ which was largely seen as politically motivated. During the Bush years the administration ordered the DOJ to prioritize fighting voter fraud while deprioritizing other civil rights litigation efforts, despite little evidence of significant amounts of fraudulent voting occurring. This was obviously a desperate attempt to find any shred of evidence that could be useful in propping up the false GOP narrative of undocumented immigrants casting illegal votes for Democrats.

There is no indication to suggest the Trump administration will not use this same power over the DOJ in order to further its campaign promises to squash the civil rights of minorities and disenfranchised people. The administration could possibly fire all attorneys in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, which has been done by past administrations, and refill those positions with individuals who are more aligned with derailing civil rights expansion rather than enforcing civil rights laws. This will leave a large glaring hole in society's apparatus for resisting attacks on civil liberties, including hate crimes, voter suppression and repression of women's reproductive rights.

With Republicans controlling all three branches of the federal government, the courts will become an even more essential battleground in the fight to protect civil liberties. Luckily, besides relying on the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, activists have already developed infrastructure which will be critical in the battle for civil rights via various organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Although these organizations have already been active in pursuing civil rights litigation their efforts are now central in engaging with the Trump administration's attacks on civil rights. Please consider supporting these organizations with donations, volunteering and whatever other means that are available.


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