The Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Donald Trump has announced investigations into universities and gun rights and launched a task force dedicated to rooting out anti-Christian bias while dropping landmark civil rights settlements.
Division leaders have also pushed out more than a dozen career lawyers, including at least three chiefs of sections that handle police brutality cases and disability and voting rights, while announcing new mission statements mirroring Trump’s executive orders.
The changes align with the administration’s ideological priorities, while radically departing from the history of a division established during the Civil Rights Movement to guard the right ...