Trump’s Ugly Mid-Year Report On Civil Rights

 “The White House judges nominees on the merits of their character and not on the clients they once represented as counsel.” This was the terse statement that #45 Trump issued in defense of the instant and loud criticism of his pick, Eric Dreiband to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The division has been described as the gold standard for civil rights enforcement and direction in the nation. It’s an appropriate designation considering that for much of the last half century the CRD has set the tone and the tempo for forcing, monitoring and implementing federal civil rights initiatives.

The criticism of Dreiband is more than well-deserved. He made his reputation not as a civil rights attorney, law professor specializing in civil rights, or working with a state or federal agency tasked with civil rights legislation and enforcement. He made his reputation doing just the opposite, as a corporate attorney who specialized in trying to beat back age, gender and racial discrimination lawsuits against corporations. This makes him Trump’s perfect choice to not strengthen, but gut the federal government’s flagship civil rights agency.