AAGt Dhillon visits UVA law
On Tuesday, March 10, the Federalist Society invited Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, the Hon. Harmeet Dhillon ’93, to speak. The event was moderated by Professor Xiao Wang.
Dhillon is a controversial figure due to the DOJ civil rights investigation into UVA's admission practices during her tenure, which allegedly led to the resignation of former President James Ryan '92.
The announcement of the event caused a stir in the community, including discourse on social media and a counter-event organized by the LawDem and the National Lawyers Guild, which encouraged students to have lunch with them as opposed to attending the event.
Despite the counter-event and the discourse on Grounds, the event proceeded as scheduled. Security measures were put in and students were asked to show IDs before entering the venue. The event was well-attended, including a significant showing of faculty from across the ideological spectrum.
Dhillon started by talking about her upbringing and her time at law school, noting that her experience working on free speech issues at Dartmouth and her Sikh background influenced her to pursue public interest law. She also gave a shout-out to Laura Ingraham ’91 for mentoring her and advised law students to look for mentors.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Turning to the priorities of the Civil Rights Division, Dhillon said that she has continued and will continue the “apolitical” type of prosecution, such as “disability” and “tenant rights,” but has also expressed interest in putting additional focus on prosecuting racial discrimination “against Whites and Asians,” and enforcing the FACE Act on persons disrupting both abortion clinics and religious houses.
Dhillon partially described the change in prosecution priority and direction as inevitable because of the “change in the law”, saying that as the jurisprudence on issues like affirmative action changes, the civil rights law has to be enforced differently.
The conversation then turned to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), where she was asked by Professor Wang to comment on what is wrong with DEI in the context of her Asian identity.
“Don’t we want Asian Americans to feel that they are comfortable and included [in American society]?” asked Wang.
Dhillon stated that in her view, it "violates the Civil Rights Act" and is just affirmative action that "keeps Asians out."
Affirmative Action is a controversial issue [1] within the Asian community, with some supporters believing it brings a positive education environment for all students, while others opposing it on the grounds that it has hurt the opportunity for Asian Americans to receive an elite education, with statistics showing a bump in Asian Enrollment [2] in elite universities across the country after the end of affirmative action from SFFA v. Harvard.
She then turned to the question regarding her investigation into American universities. Although she did not comment on the investigation into UVA's admission and financial aid policies directly, she compared the investigations to police traffic stops, saying that “UVA got pulled over.”
While taking questions, she was confronted by a student demanding that she investigate the killing of Renee Good and other deaths linked to ICE’s activities. While the student read a list of victims’ names, Dhillon interrupted: “Are we going to take all the question time with this recitation?” She declined to give an affirmative response, citing jurisdictional limitations on her role.
When asked about hiring public interest students who don't share her politics into career positions at the DOJ, Dhillon committed to upholding the apolitical hiring process currently in place at the DOJ and said that “there is enough work at Civil Rights where I can give people work that they want.”
However, she followed up with a concern about the lack of professionalism among “ideological people prevalent at [DOJ] Civil Rights.” She said that although there can be political differences, sabotaging government initiatives crosses the line into the realm of unprofessionalism. “Leaking things like the J memo, which is privileged, confidential material, to the press crosses the line, and [lawyers who do so] should be disbarred,” she said.
Dhillon also expressed gratitude to the career lawyers at the DOJ Civil Rights Division who have “stepped up and assisted my work.” She ended her remarks by encouraging students at UVA to do public service, and encouraged students who are going into public service to “be real, be grateful.”
Nathan Lee ‘28
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/15/upshot/college-enrollment-race.html