United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

Seal of the United States Department of Justice
Division overview
Formed	December 9, 1957 (1957-12-09)
Jurisdiction	United States government agency
Headquarters	Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C., United States
Annual budget	$162 million (2015) [1]
Division executives	Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General Jesus A. Osete, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Parent department	U.S. Department of Justice
Website	www.justice.gov/crt

The United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is a division of the United States Department of Justice that enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin.

The division was established on December 9, 1957, by order of Attorney General William P. Rogers, after the Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the head office of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (AAG-CR; appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate)

Organization

• Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
  • Appellate Section
  • Coordination and Review Section
  • Criminal Section
  • Disability Rights Section
  • Educational Opportunities Section
  • Employment Litigation Section
  • Housing and Civil Enforcement Section
  • Immigrant and Employee Rights Section ^[2]
  • Policy & Strategy Section
  • Special Litigation Section
  • Voting Section

Jurisdiction

The Division enforces

• the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968
• the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended through 2006
• the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974
• the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• the National Voter Registration Act of 1993
• the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009
• the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986
• the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984
• the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980, which authorizes the Attorney General to seek relief for persons confined in public institutions where conditions exist that deprive residents of their constitutional rights
• the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994
• the Police Misconduct Provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
• the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000
• the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993
• Section 102 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), as amended, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin and citizenship status as well as document abuse and retaliation under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

In addition, the Division prosecutes actions under several criminal civil rights statutes which were designed to preserve personal liberties and safety.

Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

Drew S. Days III was the first African-American Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

  denotes head that served as acting Assistant Attorney General

#	Head	Took office	Left office	Party	Administration	Ref.
1	W. Wilson White	1957	1960	Republican	Dwight D. Eisenhower	[3]
2	Harold R. Tyler	1960	1961	Republican		[4]
3	Burke Marshall	1961	1965	Democratic	John F. Kennedy	[4]
4	John Doar	1965	1967	Republican	Lyndon B. Johnson	[4] [5]
5	Stephen J. Pollak	1967	1969	Democratic		[4]
6	Jerris Leonard	1969	1971	Republican	Richard Nixon	[4]
7	David Luke Norman	1971	1973	Republican		[4]
8	J. Stanley Pottinger	1973	1977	Republican		[4]
9	Drew S. Days	1977	1980	Democratic	Jimmy Carter	[4]
10	William Bradford Reynolds	1981	1988	Republican	Ronald Reagan	[4] [6]
–	William C. Lucas (acting)	1988	1989	Republican
–	James P. Turner (acting)	1989	1990	Republican
11	John R. Dunne	1990	1993	Republican	George H. W. Bush	[4]
–	James P. Turner (acting)	1993	1994	Democratic	Bill Clinton
12	Deval Patrick	1994	1997	Democratic		[4]
13	Bill Lann Lee	1997	2001	Democratic		[7]
14	Ralph F. Boyd Jr.	2001	2003	Republican	George W. Bush
–	Bradley Schlozman (acting)	2003	2003	Republican
15	Alexander Acosta	2003	2005	Republican
16	Wan J. Kim	2005	2007	Republican
–	Grace Chung Becker (acting)	2008	2008	Republican
17	Thomas Perez	2009	2013	Democratic	Barack Obama	[8]
–	Jocelyn Samuels (acting)	2013	2014	Democratic
–	Molly J. Moran (acting)	2014	2014	Democratic
–	Vanita Gupta (acting)	2014	2017	Democratic		[9]
–	Thomas E. Wheeler II (acting)	2017	2017	Republican	Donald Trump	[10]
–	John M. Gore (acting)	2017	2018	Republican		[11]
18	Eric Dreiband	2018	2021	Republican		[12]
19	Kristen Clarke	2021	2025	Democratic	Joe Biden
–	Mac Warner (acting)	2025	2025	Republican	Donald Trump	[13]
20	Harmeet Dhillon	2025	-	Republican		[14]

References

1. 2015 Department of Justice Budget Authority by Appropriation, United States Department of Justice, Retrieved22 December 2015.
2. "Overview Of The Immigrant and Employee Rights Section". justice.gov. 2015-08-06. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
3. "The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division: A Historical Perspective as the Division Nears 50, Remarks by Wan Kim, Mar. 22, 2006" (PDF).
4. Turner, James P. (December 14, 1997). "Used and Abused: The Civil Rights Division". Washington Post. p. C01. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
5. Reed, Roy (2014-11-11). "John Doar, Federal Lawyer on Front Lines Against Segregation, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-10-08.
6. Garcia, Philip J. (November 9, 1988). "Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds, the Justice Department's Controversial Civil Rights Chief, Resigned Wednesday Effective Dec. 9". United Press International (UPI). Retrieved 22 December 2015.
7. Marquis, Christopher (August 4, 2000). "Clinton Sidesteps Senate to Fill Civil Rights Enforcement Job". New York Times. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
8. "Meet the AAG Banner". The United States Department of Justice. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
9. "Attorney General Holder Announces Vanita Gupta to Serve as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division". The United States Department of Justice. October 15, 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
10. Tillman, Zoe (January 24, 2017). "Here's Who Is Running The Justice Department Right Now". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
11. "United States Department Of Justice Civil Rights Division". July 28, 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
12. "Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband Announces Departure from Civil Rights Division". www.justice.gov. 2021-01-07. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
13. Penn, Ben (February 24, 2025). "Warner, Who Said CIA Stole Election, Now Leads DOJ Civil Rights". Bloomberg Law . Retrieved March 7, 2025.
14. Cohen, Matt (February 24, 2025). "Fox in the Henhouse:Senate Confirms Anti-Voting Lawyer Harmeet Dhillon to Top Voting Rights Post". Democracy Docket . Retrieved April 3, 2025.

External links

• Official website