Restore Federal Civil Rights Enforcement and Hold Federal Agents Accountable

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to restore legitimate civil rights enforcement and hold federal agents accountable for constitutional violations. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, once the crown jewel under Burke Marshall's leadership in the 1960s, has been completely perverted under Harmeet Dhillon's direction. More than 200 former Justice Department employees have signed an open letter stating that this administration has turned the division's mission upside down, with approximately 75% of attorneys leaving after witnessing the destruction of their work. Instead of protecting Americans' constitutional rights, the division now focuses on accusing universities of discriminating against white applicants while remaining conspicuously silent about the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, despite bystander video evidence. Federal investigations into police killings, once routine, no longer occur. The Justice Department has pursued charges against journalist Don Lemon for covering an ICE protest that moved into a church in St. Paul, accusing him of criminal conspiracy for his reporting. Federal courts have rejected these efforts as frivolous. Judge Patrick Schiltz, a Reagan appointee, condemned the approach, stating he and his colleagues had never seen anything like it. Meanwhile, the Department actively obstructs state and local investigations into the Good and Pretti killings. This represents a complete inversion of federal civil rights enforcement. When Burke Marshall served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Robert F. Kennedy, he dispatched federal marshals and troops under the Insurrection Act of 1807 to ensure James Meredith became the first Black student admitted to the University of Mississippi on October 1, 1962. Marshall's work became the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I urge you to support state and local efforts to prosecute federal officials who violate constitutional rights. Legal precedent exists: a 2001 Ninth Circuit ruling allowed an Idaho prosecutor to indict an FBI agent, and an 1906 Supreme Court case permitted Pennsylvania to prosecute soldiers. Please also support legislation enabling state residents to sue federal agents who commit murder, similar to laws passed in Illinois and California.