An ode to Harmeet Dhillon

One of the Trump administration’s most valuable and assiduous officials tendered her resignation on Thursday. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced her departure moments before speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference at Mar-a-Lago.It is unquestionably a terrible loss for the Trump administration, the Make America Great Again movement, and the rule of law. Dhillon was a jewel for justice. She redirected a division that had become a vehicle for a radical left-wing ideological crusade, working to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and restore merit as the standard.Dhillon was the public servant America deserved. She worked diligently to stop the radical Left’s cultural takeover and fearlessly took on its political machinery. Her departure is a shame, and she will be sorely missed. Her record in the Trump administration and in private practice shows why. BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL: DEMOCRATS CAMPAIGNED ON AFFORDABILITY. IT TOOK TWO HOURS TO SHOW IT WAS A LIE, AND THEY JUST WANT TO INVESTIGATE TRUMPOn Oct. 27, under Dhillon’s leadership, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit accusing Anne Arundel County Public Schools of “secretly ‘gender transitioning’ children without their parents’ knowledge or consent.” The department also accused the district of “blocking parents’ access to information about their children.”“Schools should not discuss preferred pronouns or ‘gender identity’ with a student without parental notification and consent,” Dhillon said at the time. “Parents should not be lied to, stonewalled, or branded as ‘safety concerns’ when they ask to see the education records that reveal what schools are secretly doing to their children. This Department will end illegal school policies that keep parents in the dark.”It was the kind of lawsuit that needed to be filed. Democrats had ignored the problem, and previous Republican administrations had been too cowardly to act.Dhillon was also steadfast in challenging racial preferences, a mainstay of the contemporary Left’s cultural playbook. On Oct. 21, the Civil Rights Division announced “investigative findings that Ohio State University College of Medicine discriminated against white and Asian students in granting admission to its 2023, 2024, and 2025 incoming classes.” The department said the school’s admissions practices violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.“Despite SFFA, OSU Med allows some applicants to bypass its own screening process and skip interviews solely because of the color of their skin,” Dhillon said at the time. “A university’s admissions process, and all its stages, should apply equally to all applicants regardless of race. The use of a separate admissions process based on race is plainly illegal under federal law, and this Department will not allow these appalling practices to continue at OSU Med or any other federally funded higher ed institution.”Also in October, Dhillon helped secure a $5 million settlement with Maplebear Inc. over allegations that the company discriminated against U.S. workers based on citizenship status and national origin by giving preference to workers with temporary employment visas.It was the 15th such settlement under Dhillon’s leadership at the Justice Department. And just six days separated the Ohio State announcement and the Anne Arundel County lawsuit.Before joining the Trump administration, Dhillon took on similar fights in private practice. In January 2024, she pursued legal action after a Muirlands Middle School student faced discipline for wearing eye black at a high school football game in San Diego. It was the same kind of eye black NFL players wear every Sunday, yet school officials treated it as blackface.“No child should have to file a lawsuit to protect himself from manufactured hysteria and cancellation, much less face harassment and pressure tactics from his own teachers for that act of bravery,” Dhillon said in a press release at the time. “But that’s what cancel culture now gets us: adults bullying children to satisfy their own political narratives. This school is once again demonstrating that they are engaging in a race to the bottom to scapegoat a child in their quest to find racism where none exists.”Then there is Dhillon’s work on behalf of Chloe Cole, who underwent a gender transition between the ages of 13 and 17. The Dhillon Law Group described her care as “harmful transgender treatment, specifically, off-label puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatment, and a double mastectomy.”BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL: ANOTHER ELECTION, ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC DOOMSDAY THAT NEVER CAMEThe firm alleged that the defendants told Cole’s parents she was at high risk of suicide unless she transitioned socially and medically. According to the firm, Cole’s parents were also “given an ultimatum: would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”These cases are only a sampling of Dhillon’s work. She challenged racial preferences in hiring and college admissions, defended parents’ right to know what schools were doing, and took on the medical institutions that treated Cole. She brought the same resolve to the Justice Department that she showed in private practice. Her work was heroic and deserves to be recognized as such.