Department of Justice, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division

Department/Agency: Department of Justice

Position:

Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division

Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

Administration's top civil rights enforcer
Manage and set policy of the Civil Rights Division
Enforce federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion and national origin
Act as administration’s civil rights spokesman

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

Background in civil rights law
Previous experience in the Department of Justice
Litigation experience
Familiarity with Capitol Hill

Insight:

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, led by the Assistant Attorney General, is charged with enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Critics of the Bush administration's Civil Rights Division have raised concerns over politicized hiring practices and a decline in attention to such traditional civil rights issues as voting rights.

When former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales came under fire for politicized firings of U.S. attorneys, the Civil Rights Division also faced allegations of using political affiliation against career DOJ attorneys and job applicants. The Boston Globe reported in July 2006 that the Bush administration was “quietly remaking the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, filling the permanent ranks with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights.” The newspaper said 42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003 had civil rights experience, versus 77 percent of those hired in the previous two years.

The alleged architect of the hiring scheme, former acting division head Bradley J. Schlozman, left the division amid these allegations, as did Wan Kim, Schlozman's successor at the helm. Grace Chung Becker was nominated in November 2007 to fill the vacancy and has served on an acting basis. Sen. Patrick Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee raised questions about Becker's ability to turn the troubled division around during her confirmation hearing in March 2008. Becker's nomination never came to a vote.

The Civil Rights Division was created during the Eisenhower administration under a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a watered down civil rights law but nonetheless the first enacted since Reconstruction. (That legislation also created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.)

On the division's 50th anniversary in December 2007, Drew Days, civil rights assistant attorney general during the Carter administration, told NPR, “There seems to be a lessening of any genuine concern about the degree to which racial discrimination continues to be a significant problem in the United States."

Critics charged that under the Bush administration, the division shifted resources from race-based discrimination cases to human trafficking, deportation, disability discrimination and voter fraud cases. That undermined morale and led to an exodus of career attorneys, the critics contended. In 2005, 63 attorneys left the division, twice the annual norm since the 1990s, the Boston Globe reported.

The division has touted its efforts to combat human trafficking and assist Americans with disabilities. Then-assistant attorney general Kim in February 2007 promoted the newly created Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit on Federal News Radio. The unit specializes in prosecuting complex human trafficking cases, which often cut across national borders and involve vulnerable and often reluctant witnesses, Kim said.

The Bush administration also points to its commitment to the rights of Americans with disabilities. “My New Freedom Initiative, announced in February 2001, sets out a comprehensive strategy for the full integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of American life,” Bush said in 2004. He commended the DOJ’s partnerships with businesses and local governments to increase access for people with disabilities to workplaces, city halls and courthouses.

The next assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division must work to distribute resources among traditional civil rights issues and new priorities like human trafficking cases — and to patch the internal rifts in the department.

Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:

Attorney General
Deputy Attorney General
Professional Development Office
National Advocacy Center
DOJ pro bono program

Key Relationships – Within the Government:

Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chairman, Commission on Civil Rights
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Counsel to the President
Federal agencies covered by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

Civil rights organizations
Employer and labor groups
Housing groups
State and local governments and first responders
Education officials

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Current Position Profile:
1. Tom Perez, J.D., M.P.A. (Confirmed: October 6, 2009). A recognized civil rights lawyer and consumer advocate; most recently the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. A graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Recent Position Profiles:

2. Grace Chung Becker, J.D. (Acting, 2007-2009). Former associate deputy general counsel at the Department of Defense and federal prosecutor. Former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center.

3. Wan J. Kim, J.D. (2005-2007). Former deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division. Career Department of Justice trial attorney in the criminal division. Served as special attorney to the attorney general in the prosecution of Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Former Senate Judiciary Committee staffer. Former enlisted soldier and rifle platoon leader in the Army.

4. Bradley J. Shlozman, JD. (Acting, 2005). Former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and counsel to then-deputy attorney general Larry Thompson.