Civil Rights Chief Harmeet Dhillon Resigns After 18 Months

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on X that Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, has resigned. Her departure ends an 18-month tenure that marked a sharp turn for the agency. Dhillon is the first senior official in the department to leave the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections.

In a statement, Blanche said he accepted her resignation with gratitude. He described her service as dedicated and noted that she defended the civil liberties of every American. "She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor," Blanche wrote. "The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors."

During her time in charge, Dhillon fundamentally altered the division's staffing and priorities. She removed approximately 300 attorneys from the division and replaced them with new hires described as inexperienced ideological allies. This shift moved the agency away from its traditional mission, which had focused for seven decades on protecting constitutional rights in areas such as housing, employment, education, and policing.

Dhillon, a conservative attorney, viewed the division's historical focus as too narrow. At a Federalist Society event in 2025, she explained her approach. "We don't just slow down the woke," she said. "We take up the cause to achieve the executive branch's goals."

Under her leadership, the division used its enforcement powers to advance specific executive orders. These efforts included investigating alleged radical indoctrination in schools, addressing what officials called gender ideology extremism, and combating antisemitism and anti-Christian bias. In the period leading up to the midterm elections, the division sued dozens of states to obtain voter information, supporting President Trump's claims regarding voter fraud. Election officials challenged the moves, and courts dismissed the department's lawsuits.

The division also filed suits against numerous universities and law schools, alleging discrimination against white and Asian students. It specifically sued UCLA and Harvard for allegedly allowing antisemitism to flourish on campus. Many veterans of the division criticized Dhillon's direction, arguing it distorted the unit's core mission.

Stacey Young, a former division attorney who now heads the alumni group Justice Connection, described Dhillon's tenure as destructive. "Dhillon wielded the enormous power of the Justice Department to threaten universities, state and local officials, and election workers in spurious cases that rarely won in court," Young said. "For almost 70 years, the Civil Rights Division brought to fruition the civil rights laws that Americans demanded. Dhillon decimated it."