Civil rights enforcement has been a strength of the Department of Justice under President Obama. Under a Trump Department of Justice led by Jeff Sessions, it’s not clear civil rights enforcement would even happen. At all.
There’s a lot at stake:
[Civil rights advocates and legal scholars] predict the Justice Department in the coming years will be less likely to sue states over voting restrictions that target the poor or minorities, to hold police departments accountable for abuses or fight in court for the rights of transgender people.
Also vulnerable are Justice Department guidelines set under President Obama that sought more lenient sentences for nonviolent offenders and restricted racial profiling and surveillance of Muslims. [...]
“We are very concerned that simple inactivity by the Department of Justice will help undo the progress made over the last eight years,” said Michael W. Macleod-Ball, attorney at the ACLU in Washington. “It’s not a good time to unwind efforts intended to make life fairer for vulnerable populations.”
And the prospect of Jeff Sessions as attorney general makes the picture look even worse:
“The choice of Senator Sessions to lead the Department of Justice is more than deeply unsatisfactory; it is a blatantly inflammatory act in a time of heightened focus on violence and injustice against communities of color,” said Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice, a coalition of civil rights advocacy organizations. “Sessions’ history of racist rhetoric, insults and persecution is well-known, and put a swift end to his nomination for a federal judgeship years ago. ... The proposed nomination of this person as a candidate for this position is a shocking gesture of hostility toward millions of Americans, and should be immediately rejected.”
Simple inactivity by the Department of Justice may end up as a best-case scenario.