Extremist anti -otant rights about to be given by the protection of voting rights

Washington – The Senate is about to confirm Harmet Dhillon to direct the civil rights division in the Department of Justice, putting someone who has spent years attacking voting rights, abortion rights and LGBTQ rights in charge of protecting those rights for millions of Americans.

The Republicans advanced Dhillon’s nomination on Wednesday, clearing a procedural obstacle in a 52-45 vote along the party lines. Dhillon now awaits a vote on Thursday to be confirmed, which, except something extraordinary, is almost certain since any Republican senators have raised concerns with her.

Dhillon, a conservative lawyer of the extreme right and former official of the Republican Party of California, has been the legal advisor of President Donald Trump during the last four years. During your 2020 campaign, SHe perpetuated his lie that the election was stolen from him due to generalized voting fraud, which did not exist. She did television interviews falsely affirming that there was Persistent voter fraud In Pennsylvania, a state that Trump legitimately lost Joe Biden.

His law firm, Dhillon Law Group, over the years has presented More than a dozen demands In eight states aimed at challenging voting rights, electoral processes or Trump’s ability to appear in 2024 in the states that disqualified it due to their role in inciting the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

The Dhillon firm also presented Amicus writings on behalf of the conservative groups in the cases before the Supreme Court: one In support of a map of the Racially discriminatory Alabama Congress and another In support of the theory of the independent state legislature of the extreme right. Both cases were attacked by the court.

As recently as October 2024, Dhillon falsely claimed The results of the 2020 elections were the result of a “wholesale ignorant of the laws approved by the legislatures.”

Dhillon has also directly attacked the Voting Rights Law of 1965, the historical law that prohibits racial discrimination in the vote, which will now be in charge of enforcing, if confirmed. She has called an effort of the Congress to restore part of the law that was attacked in Shelby v. Holder – A decision of the 2013 Supreme Court that has allowed states with a history of voter discrimination to approve new new voting laws without federal supervision, a “Unnecessary recorded” based on “false propaganda on” voting rights “.

“Where is the suppression?” She wondered in An opinion article of 2021 News in which she ruled out the negative effects of the Shelby v. Holder decision.

During the confirmation hearing of the Dhillon Senate at the end of February, Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) pressed her on how she would decide when to demand on state laws that discriminate against voters.

Hirono gave examples of the demands for the presentation of the United States Attorney General Merrick Garland under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Law, in a case in response to a state law that prohibits civil rights groups from fainting people online to vote. In another case, Garland filed a lawsuit against a state law that limits the use of vote counties in absence.

“There are several of these types of voting rights laws that the states promulgated later Shelby CountyAnd, in fact, 13 states immediately approved all kinds of laws that made much more difficult to vote, “said Hirono, referring to the states that closed 1,688 voting stations within six years after the judicial decision.” How are you going to decide which one to pass? I mean, they obviously have the effect of discrimination against certain groups, which makes it more difficult to vote. “

Dhillon said he did not agree with the premise of the senator’s question that “all these measures that Georgia and other states took to improve the confidence of all citizens in the de facto vote, had any form of discriminatory impact.”

Hirono intervened, with dismay: “That is the crux, is it, in terms of whether or not these laws have an anti -discriminatory effect? ​​And you obviously do not believe it.”

Tom Williams through Getty Images

Dhillon’s registration on reproductive rights is also terrible, as well as registration on LGBTQ rights. She uses inflammatory language when she speaks of any of these problems. She has said that she opposes abortion rights because she does not support “Kill children in the uterus.” And when it comes to the rights of transgender people, she is referred to doctors who provide attention to gender statement such as “butchers” and “predators” who are “pushing trans lies.”

In his free time, Dhillon has Dangerous conspiracy theories fed And in 2018 he founded a non -profit legal group, the American Libertad Center, which curiously claims to defend the “civil liberties of Americans left by organizations inherited civil rights.”

One of its outstanding customers is Andy Ngo, a Extreme right influencer Who the South Poverty Law Center once described as “publication Anti-Antifa, Islamophobic and transbian Tweets and articles to his considerable Twitter followers, along with the dissemination of arrest records and the personal details of leftist protesters. “

The leadership conference on civil and human rights, a real civil rights coalition that represents more than 240 national organizations, has been urging senators to oppose the nomination of Dhillon for all the reasons mentioned above.

“The lack of independence of Mrs. Dhillon and the record of pursuing the rights of the same people that would have the duty to defend is to disqualify,” said the group. In a letter delivered to the senators in mid -March.

“We deserve an assistant attorney who works for all of us and who has a record to protect and advance the rights of all people in the United States,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, the registration of Mrs. Dhillon and her statements at the hearing show that it is not suitable for this role. We urge the Senate to oppose their confirmation.”

The letter is signed by organizations, including AFL-CI, the Human Rights campaign, the NAACP, the National Center for Women and People for the American Way.