A couple of years ago, I spent a long 6-hour flight sitting next to a civil rights attorney from CalTrans.
After we exchanged business cards, I asked him why the transportation department needed civil rights lawyers.
Turned out to be both a fascinating and a disturbing conversation
Every government agency of consequence has to take civil rights law into account. The essence of the core civil rights law — the federal civil rights act — is that it provides a way to force local and state governments to follow the Bill of Rights. In my experience, governments frequently find that a great bother.