Staffing Disruptions at DOJ's Civil Rights Division

Bloomberg Law reports several staffing disruptions within the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division. Several DOJ staff focused on monitoring housing discrimination have been required to stay at the voting section full-time, after they initially accepted part-time voluntary details. Roughly half a dozen others within the Department's immigrant and employee rights section were involuntarily detailed to the division’s employment litigation section, which is probing universities’ hiring practices as part of the administration’s anti-DEI emphasis. Out of roughly 400 Civil Rights division attorneys at the start of the Trump administration, about 300 have left this year, according to reports. The remaining lawyers in the division were directed in September 2025 to submit a writing sample and a docket memo that summarized their work over the past six months. A July 23, 2025 oversight memorandum from Senator Peter Welch and a December 30, 2025 follow-up letter to  Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon outlined these and other staffing changes at the division.