US President-elect Donald Trump has named Republican Party activist Harmeet Dhillon to be the assistant attorney general for civil rights.
“In her new role at the DOJ (Department of Justice), Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY,” Trump said on Truth Social making the announcement on Monday.
“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties,” he said.
He added, “Harmeet is one of the top Election lawyers in the Country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted.”
Trump also noted that Harmeet Dhillon “is a respected member of the Sikh religious community”.
If her appointment is approved by the Senate, she will become the second Indian-American to hold the top civil rights position after Vanita Gupta, who held that position in former President Barack Obama’s administration and was the associate attorney general for two years under President Joe Biden.
Dhillon ran unsuccessfully for the chair of the Republican National Committee last year.
She has been a member of the Republican National Committee and said a Sikh prayer at the Republican National Conventions in 2016 and 2024.
In the 2020 election, she was a legal adviser to the Trump campaign.
She was the co-chair of the Women for Trump, a group mobilising women’s support for his election.
Her career as a civil rights career has focused on the rights of Conservatives and their causes, which she is expected to bring to the DOJ.
Trump said that “she took on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers”.
During the Covid pandemic, she sued California, New Jersey, and Virginia against their lockdown rules that prevented churches from holding worship services.
She also sued the University of California, Berkeley, on behalf of a youth group for preventing a right-wing activist from speaking there.
Another case she took up was that of a White man who alleged that he was fired by Google for writing a memo criticising the company’s diversity programmes.
She has also sued the extreme leftist group, Antifa, for allegedly attacking a journalist.
Another case she has filed is against a California hospital group on behalf of a woman who said that the doctors there gave her sex change treatment when she was a minor.