Hearings to examine ending illegal discrimination and preferences, focusing on enforcing our civil rights laws.

Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights

2025-07-23

Summary

The committee meeting, chaired by Eric Stephen Schmitt, focused on the topic of "Ending Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences, Enforcing Our Civil Rights Laws." The discussion centered on the interpretation and enforcement of civil rights laws, particularly concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other entities, featuring strong opinions from both sides of the aisle. The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, testified regarding the DOJ's recent actions under the Trump administration to dismantle what they perceive as illegal DEI practices across various sectors.

Themes

Critique of DEI Initiatives

Senator Eric Stephen Schmitt argued that America's civil rights laws have been misused to institutionalize discrimination through DEI, creating a "new racial caste system." He characterized DEI as discrimination, retribution, and exclusion, rather than true diversity, equity, or inclusion. Examples provided included universities prioritizing racial quotas over merit, corporate hiring based on race and sex, and federal programs allegedly discriminating against white or male individuals. Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, stated that DEI initiatives unlawfully discriminate based on protected characteristics, equating the term DEI with discrimination, exclusion, and intolerance. Gene Hamilton of America First Legal also described DEI as intentional discrimination that undermines meritocracy and individual liberty.

Enforcement Actions by the Department of Justice

Dhillon detailed the DOJ's aggressive enforcement of President Trump's Executive Order 14173, aimed at "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity." She reported numerous investigations launched in her first 100 days, targeting universities for DEI-based discrimination, antisemitism, and racially discriminatory admissions practices.[ 00:38:37-00:38:44 ]

The DOJ is also investigating race and sex-based hiring practices in the University of California system and several state and local governments. Dhillon affirmed the goal is to dismantle illegal racial preferences and quotas, stating, "Either DEI will end on its own or we will kill it." Furthermore, she highlighted actions taken against religious discrimination, including siding with a Catholic coach, intervening in a Washington state lawsuit, and investigating antisemitism and violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).[ 01:15:55-01:16:12 ]

Role and Integrity of the Civil Rights Division

Katie Elizabeth Britt lauded the Civil Rights Division as a "crown jewel" of the DOJ, founded by President Eisenhower to enforce civil rights laws and combat discrimination. However, she expressed concern that the division's new policy, focusing on the "priorities of the president," undermines its responsibility to enforce congressional laws and the Constitution.[ 00:32:06-00:32:32 ]

Britt questioned Dhillon's actions regarding Texas redistricting, suggesting political motivations, and criticized the dismissal of a settlement addressing a septic problem in Lowndes County, Alabama, which was labeled "illegal DEI." Robert Stewart, a State Senator from Alabama, confirmed that $24 million for wastewater infrastructure in Lowndes County was rescinded after the Civil Rights Department agreement was dismissed. Adam B. Schiff accused the administration of devastating the Civil Rights Division, causing a "mass exodus" of attorneys, and using federal funding to impose a "right-wing agenda" on universities.

Redefining Civil Rights and Equality

Senator Schmitt advocated for "equal treatment under the law," calling for an end to racial preferences, double standards, and "legal fictions like disparate impact." He asserted that civil rights laws were meant to dismantle, not perpetuate, racial caste systems. Dhillon clarified that while the traditional meanings of diversity, equity, and inclusion are positive, their current application often translates to "quotas and discrimination" and a "group form of justice" inconsistent with individual equal opportunity.[ 00:52:52 ]

In contrast, Mazie K. Hirono defended diversity as America's "greatest strength," arguing that it fosters national unity and that DEI programming is not illegal.

Tone of the Meeting

The meeting had a contentious and highly polarized tone, with participants expressing deeply divergent views on the role of DEI and the Civil Rights Division.[ 00:32:37 ]

The majority speakers, including Senator Schmitt and Ms. Dhillon, were assertive and resolute in their commitment to dismantling DEI, using strong language like "weaponized" and "kill it." Minority speakers, particularly Katie Elizabeth Britt and Adam B. Schiff, conveyed significant concern and criticism, accusing the administration of politicizing the DOJ and devastating the Civil Rights Division.[ 00:32:06 ] The exchanges were at times accusatory, with Senator Schiff accusing the administration of "cancel culture" and Senator Hawley calling for accountability for "crimes" related to religious discrimination. Overall, the discussion was passionate and emotive, highlighting the gravity and division surrounding the issues at hand.

Participants

Transcript

Eric Stephen Schmitt

We will call the committee meeting to order. I want to thank everybody for being here. I'll give my opening remarks, and then Senator Welsh, who's on his way, will give his remarks. Thank you for being here for the hearing entitled Ending Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences, Enforcing Our Civil Rights Laws. This is the third hearing of this Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, which I chair alongside Ranking Member Peter Welsh. from the great state of Vermont. I want to thank the witnesses who are here today from the Department of Justice for being accommodating the first hearing this Congress involving a Senate-confirmed member of the Department of Justice. Ranking member Welsh requested back in April we hold a hearing with Assistant Attorney General Dillon just a couple weeks after she was confirmed. Now that she's passed the 100-day mark, I'm so grateful that she's agreed to come testify about her historic successes so far in the important work she's doing on today's topic. Let me begin with a hard but necessary truth. For at least the last decade, America's civil rights laws have been used not to prohibit discrimination, but to institutionalize it. The modern civil rights regime, both inside and outside of government, has been wielded like a weapon. not to safeguard the equal rights of all citizens, but to engineer a radical new social order built upon the deliberate dispossession of huge swaths of our country. Rather than protecting the constitutional order of the founders, it has become the vanguard of a revolution in the political, legal, social, and even moral underpinnings of American society. The revolution has gone by many names, affirmative action, anti-racism, social justice, Today, it most commonly is referred to as diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.

Eric Stephen Schmitt

But whatever the name is, in every instance, it amounts to the same thing, a new racial caste system sanctioned and enforced by the administrative state. Americans never voted for any of this. It slunk in through the back door, cloaked in bureaucratic doublespeak and soothing euphemisms. But today, It has wrapped itself around all the great institutions of American life, our schools, our businesses, our government, and even our armed forces. The bureaucracies of this new system are the diversity officers, the human rights commissioners, the HR managers, and select members of the groups at the top of the victim hierarchy. The victims are the rest of America, the smart, working class kid who can't get a scholarship because of his skin color. the Christian business owner targeted and persecuted for his faith, the patriotic young West Point cadets subjected to mandatory struggle sessions for their toxic masculinity. DEI isn't just illegal, it's a fraudulent and cynical ideology from top to bottom built on layers of lies. It's not about diversity, it's about discrimination, a sustained campaign of collective punishment wrapped in the rhetoric of social justice. It's not about equity. It's about retribution. The advocates of DEI don't actually want to level the playing field. They aren't interested in equality under the law. Their entire mission is to elevate members of certain groups over members of other groups and remake America in their own image. And finally, it's not about inclusion. It's about exclusion of the competent, the qualified, the meritorious, and those people are members of the wrong race or sex. Over the course of the past few decades, these poisonous and illegal doctrines have transformed our institutions.

Eric Stephen Schmitt

In our universities, DEI has meant the abolishment of merit. It has meant the open, proud rejection of excellence and achievement in favor of racial quotas. Even now, after the Supreme Court ruled that race-based admissions are illegal in Students for Fair Admissions versus Harvard, the universities continue to flout the law, rebranding their quotas, cloak them in essay prompts and hiring practices and policies, but keeping the racial spoils system intact. At Harvard, at Princeton, at Stanford, the share of unrepresented minority groups did not meaningfully change after the Supreme Court's ruling, and in some cases increased, despite huge disparities in test scores and academic preparation. Just earlier today, DEI administrators at the University of Tennessee in Vanderbilt were recorded gleefully discussing how they sidestepped DEI crackdowns by simply rebranding these initiatives. In the corporate world, DEI has had the same effect. It has meant hiring and promotion not on the basis of competence, but on the basis of race and sex. A world where one's place in the new caste system determines who rises and who falls. It has meant diversity fellowships that offer double pay which white men need not apply. The effect of these policies has been even more extreme than many might guess. In the year after the Black Lives Matter protests, Bloomberg reported, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs. 94% went to people of color.

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