Trump's Justice Department Redefines Whose Civil Rights to Protect
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s decision last week to support Asian-Americans seeking to curb race-based college admissions is the latest in a series of moves that are redefining decades of civil rights enforcement — and reshaping the very notion of whose interests the federal government should protect.
Since its founding six decades ago, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has used the Constitution and federal law to expand protections of African-Americans, gays, lesbians and transgender people, immigrants and other minorities — efforts that have extended the government’s reach from polling stations to police stations.
But under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the focus has shifted to people of faith, police officers and local government officials who maintain they have been trampled by the federal government. The department has supported state voting laws that could wind up removing thousands of people from voter rolls. And it has pulled back on robust oversight of police departments found to have violated the rights of citizens in their jurisdictions.
Justice Department officials say that notions of equality have expanded and shifted quickly over the last decade, pushing identity to the fore of politics and culture, and sparking many of the anxieties that helped thrust Donald J. Trump into the White House.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trumps-justice-department-redefines-whose-civil-rights-to-protect/ar-BBMPqgh?li=BBnb7Kz
