Trump’s Doj Civil Rights Pick Built Her Name Antagonizing California Democrats

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Donald Trump's pick to lead the civil rights division at the Department of Justice built a national profile as the ultimate San Francisco contrarian — representing conservative college students at UC Berkeley, a Google engineer fired for opposing diversity efforts and churches forced to close during the pandemic.

Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney and Republican Party official who lives in San Francisco, has for years played a central role in culture-war legal battles over diversity, free speech and Covid closures in California and nationally. She’s also been a fierce Trump loyalist from the start.

Her ideology and track record of taking on splashy conservative causes in the Golden State likely signal a fundamental shift in the DOJ’s approach to civil rights, upending conventional ideas about whose rights the division is focused on protecting.

“She certainly brings a different lens,” said Mark Geragos, a friend of Dhillon and famed Los Angeles trial attorney whose past clients include Hunter Biden and the Menendez brothers. “The civil rights division, to my mind, has kind of languished.”

Longtime allies said Dhillon, if she’s confirmed by the Senate, is likely to use the division’s powers to target universities for alleged discrimination against Jewish or white students, challenge social media companies that censor conservative speech, and ensure left-leaning groups are prosecuted in cases of political violence.

Dhillon declined to comment for this article, but tweeted that she was "extremely honored" when Trump tapped her for the assistant attorney general role.

Dhillon’s nomination, though she faces few obstacles in the GOP-controlled Senate, has sparked worry among some legal observers who say her tactics could paralyze the DOJ’s long-running efforts to protect voting rights and other safeguards for minority groups.

“She’ll bring a nontraditional approach to civil rights cases. She labels them as woke, as if to view them in a derogatory way,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Dhillon’s firm, the Dhillon Law Group Inc., and its nonprofit arm the Center for American Liberty have gained notoriety for their challenges to California policies during the pandemic when they won several U.S. Supreme Court rulings against the state’s lockdowns.

Her ties to Trump go back much further. In 2019, Dhillon represented Trump’s campaign in a lawsuit to block a California law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, that would have required presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the primary ballot. Trump won on constitutional grounds.

“I don’t care how you skin the cat, it’s an unconstitutional law,” Dhillon said at the time.

In the last few years, Dhillon has leaned into culture-war battles over transgender rights in California and elsewhere. Her firm has sued to block the state’s efforts to prevent school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents if a child comes out as trans at school. She’s also representing a “detransition” activist suing a California hospital chain over allegations of medical misconduct.

That is likely a preview of how Dhillon would also reshape the DOJ’s stance on civil rights issues related to LGBTQ+ issues, including litigation around Title IX regulations governing women’s sports in schools that receive federal funding.

Rick Chavez Zbur, a Democratic member of the California Assembly and an attorney, said Dhillon’s nomination is “essentially giving the middle finger to the enforcement of civil rights in this country.” He said the concern is particularly pointed for LGBTQ+ people, as well as young undocumented immigrants, women who need access to abortion care and the voting rights of people of color.

But Ron Coleman, an attorney at Dhillon’s firm, argued her approach to cases is not overly partisan. Instead, he said, it is driven by core beliefs opposed to government and institutional overreach.

He said Dhillon regularly talks to Trump on the phone and is vocal when she disagrees with him. For example, Coleman predicted Dhillon would likely oppose any effort to bring back the now-defunct travel ban Trump imposed on visitors from Muslim-majority countries during his first term.

“She manages to maintain relationships with very powerful people with very substantial egos without ever abandoning her role as a counselor who will tell them exactly what they need to hear — whether they like it or not,” Coleman said.

Dhillon has long been a prominent figure in California Republican politics and previously chaired the state party. She currently represents California on the Republican National Committee and made a failed bid to become chair in 2023.

Dhillon, a practicing Sikh who was born in India, delivered a Sikh prayer onstage during the 2016 and 2024 Republican National Conventions. Friends say her upbringing in North Carolina, as part of an immigrant minority community, ingrained in her a passion for civil rights — with a strong libertarian streak.

“Resisting government overreach into people’s lives is just the fabric of who she is,” said California Republican Party Vice Chair Corrin Rankin, a close friend of Dhillon’s and a client of her firm.

Rankin added: “It comes from her parents, it comes from her childhood. It really is embedded in her DNA.”