Reclaim Civil Rights

About the Civil Rights Division

In 1957, for the first time since Reconstruction, Congress enacted legislation that recognized the need for a federal enforcement role in the battle against racial discrimination. This statute, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, while limited in its scope and authority, was the first step in Congress’s long path toward establishing a substantial legal framework to protect civil rights. In addition to this, the 1957 act also created the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to enforce federal laws against discrimination.

Today, the Civil Rights Division is the entity within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. Since its establishment, the Division has grown dramatically both in size and responsibility and today is the largest civil rights law firm in America.

The Division is organized into eight substantive sections, each responsible for enforcement of certain categories of statutes

• The Coordination and Review Section is charged with ensuring that federal agencies consistently and effectively enforce various landmark civil rights statutes and related Executive Orders that prohibit discrimination in federally assisted programs and in the federal government’s own programs and activities, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination based on race, national origin or religion in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
• The Criminal Section prosecutes violations of several federal criminal civil rights statutes, including those which prohibit police misconduct and brutality, hate crimes, human trafficking, peonage, and involuntary servitude (including forced labor of aliens and U.S. citizens in brothels, factories, farms, or domestic service), and violence directed at reproductive health care clinics or persons seeking or providing reproductive health care.
• The Disability Rights Section protects the rights of persons with disabilities under Titles I, II, and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in over seven million places of public accommodation, including all hotels, restaurants, retail stores, theaters, health care facilities, convention centers, parks, and places of recreation (Title III), in all activities of over 80,000 state and local governments (Title II), and in all employment practices of state and local government employers with 15 or more employees (Title I).
• The Educational Opportunities Section enforces federal statutes which prohibit discrimination in public elementary and secondary schools and public colleges and universities.
• The Employment Litigation Section enforces against state and local government employers the provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended ("Title VII"), and other federal laws prohibiting employment practices that discriminate on grounds of race, sex, religion, and national origin.
• The Housing and Civil Enforcement Sectionenforces the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in all types of housing transactions; the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits discrimination in lending; Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation, such as hotels, restaurants and certain places of entertainment; the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA"), which prohibits, in part, land use regulations that impose substantial burdens on religious exercise; and Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in public facilities; and the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act, which provides civil protections in areas such as housing, credit, and tax for military personnel while they are on active duty.
• The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practicesworks to protect U.S. citizens and legal immigrants from employment discrimination based upon national origin and citizenship or immigration status, unfair documentary practices during the employment eligibility verification process, and retaliation.
• The Special Litigation Section protects the constitutional and federal statutory rights of persons confined in certain institutions owned or operated by state and local governments, enforces the police misconduct provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 42 U.S.C. § 14141, which authorizes the Attorney General to seek equitable and declaratory relief to redress a pattern or practice of illegal conduct, such as racial profiling, by law enforcement agencies or agencies responsible for the administration of juvenile justice, and enforces the civil provisions of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 ("FACE"), 18 U.S.C. § 248.
• The Voting Section is responsible for enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and other statutory provisions designed to safeguard the right to vote of citizens, including racial and language minorities, disabled and illiterate persons, and overseas citizens and military personnel.

Despite this breadth of authority, there has been concern in recent years that the Civil Rights Division has had its mission hijacked by partisan political interests that are hostile to equal opportunity.

As part of its Civil Rights Enforcement Education Campaign, LCCREF plans to explore the role the Civil Rights Division has played in effective enforcement of the civil rights laws in the last several years and make recommendations for improvements that could be made to enforcement in the years to come.

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