Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Discrimination cases unravel as Trump scraps core civil rights tenet
The Washington Post ^ | June 1, 2025 11:24 AM EDT | Julian Mark, Laura Meckler

Posted on 06/01/2025 1:09:07 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

For decades, the federal government has used data analysis to ferret out race and sex discrimination, winning court cases and reaching settlements in housing, education, policing and across American life. Now the Trump administration is working to unwind those same cases.

In recent weeks, the Justice Department backed out of an agreement with an Atlanta bank accused of systematically discouraging Black and Latino home buyers from applying for loans. The Education Department terminated an agreement with a South Dakota school district where Native American students were disciplined at higher rates than their White peers. And federal prosecutors have dropped several racial discrimination reform agreements involving state and local police departments — including that of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered by an officer in 2020.

The Justice Department now is reviewing its entire docket and has already dismissed or terminated “many” cases that were “legally unsupportable” and a product of “weaponization” under the Biden administration, said Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“We will fully enforce civil rights laws in a way that satisfies the ends of justice, not politicization,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post.

The review includes cases and reform agreements forged after years-long investigations that the administration says lacked justification. Civil rights experts estimate that dozens of discrimination cases involving banks, landlords, private employers and school districts could face similar action.

“What we’re seeing is an attempt by the Trump administration to really dismantle a lot of the core tools that we use to ensure equality in the country,” said Amalea Smirniotopoulos, senior policy counsel and co-manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that has long advocated for the civil rights of Black Americans and other minorities.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: deidiscrimination; disparateimpact; enemiestlist; enemyjournalists; fakenews; julianmark; laurameckler; legaldefensefund; politicization; smirniotopoulos; waposedition; washingtoncompost
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

1 posted on 06/01/2025 1:09:07 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
In recent weeks, the Justice Department backed out of an agreement with an Atlanta bank accused of systematically discouraging Black and Latino home buyers from applying for loans.

Denying a loan to an unqualified POC is “racial profiling.”

Approving a loan to an unqualified POC is “predatory lending.”

See how that works?

2 posted on 06/01/2025 1:10:28 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

One wonders what the Washington comPost is not telling its audience about these changes....???


3 posted on 06/01/2025 1:11:33 PM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Texas_Jarhead

The Post does not explain that the Trump administration is apparently dropping the controversial and much-criticized notion of “disparate impact” as a basis for a finding of discrimination.


4 posted on 06/01/2025 1:16:46 PM PDT by Rockingham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

If a bank doesn’t want to lend money to someone the government should not be allowed to force them. That was Bill Clinton’s crap that led to the financial meltdown in 2007-8. The government monkeys are not smarter than the banks. Force the banks to lend and they will offset the risk on the public.


5 posted on 06/01/2025 1:18:12 PM PDT by HYPOCRACY (Long live The Great MAGA Kangz!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Rockingham

“Trump administration is apparently dropping the controversial and much-criticized notion of “disparate impact””

as they should. The Government forcing lenders to write bad paper hurts everyone.


6 posted on 06/01/2025 1:38:12 PM PDT by gibsonguy ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: gibsonguy

And the government forcing schools to abandon discipline hurts everyone.


7 posted on 06/01/2025 1:40:10 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

This is funny. So the Washington Post believes that the Trump Justice Department will do a better job protecting the civil rights of Blacks in Minneapolis than Tampon Tim Waltz and Mayor Jacob Frey and the Mineapolis Police Department? Or perhaps they think the deep state still runs the show there.


8 posted on 06/01/2025 1:48:59 PM PDT by ALPAPilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Texas_Jarhead

The DoJ is probably looking at anti white, anti male, anti Christian, and anti conservative bigotry running rampant through the Biden covid years.


9 posted on 06/01/2025 1:50:11 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum; piasa

“’What we’re seeing is an attempt by the Trump administration to really dismantle a lot of the core tools that we use to ensure equality in the country,’ said Amalea Smirniotopoulos, senior policy counsel and co-manager of the Equal Protection Initiative at the Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit that has long advocated for the civil rights of Black Americans and other minorities.”

* * *

https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/staff/amalea-smirniotopoulos/

Amalea Smirniotopoulos is a Senior Policy Counsel and Co-Manager of LDF’s Equal Protection Initiative.

Prior to joining LDF, Amalea was the Legislative Director for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, where she led a team of over a dozen legislative staffers to develop and execute the Senator’s agenda. She was previously a Judiciary Counsel, advising the Senator on criminal justice, immigration, civil rights, and national security issues. Amalea began her legal career at The Bronx Defenders, where she was a Staff Attorney, Supervising Attorney, and an Associate Legal Director in the Criminal Defense Practice. She clerked for the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. . .


10 posted on 06/01/2025 2:13:34 PM PDT by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

data analysis = quotas


11 posted on 06/01/2025 2:14:12 PM PDT by dynachrome (Auslander Raus!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_Conspirator

Disparate impact... Everyone has the same behavior and credit worthiness. So, there should be no differences in criminal sanctions or economic qualifications.


12 posted on 06/01/2025 2:14:31 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Fedora
Legal Defense Fund looks like a very "diverse" group. . .


13 posted on 06/01/2025 2:16:32 PM PDT by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Disparate impact” actually is a direct attack on what WaPo refers to as a “core civil rights tenet” - that is, if the authors of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were not lying about what it meant and how it would work.


14 posted on 06/01/2025 2:18:31 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

This is what I voted for


15 posted on 06/01/2025 2:35:57 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Dumping these bogus cases is a good thing.


16 posted on 06/01/2025 2:38:24 PM PDT by EastTexasTraveler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HYPOCRACY

And the left blamed it on “greedy banks”.


17 posted on 06/01/2025 2:40:02 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Excellent! Winning!


18 posted on 06/01/2025 2:52:32 PM PDT by Midwesterner53
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gibsonguy

Quite true. If I were Trump though, I would also put some public and private cash into alternative approaches to poverty centered on schools, neighborhoods, and families like the Harlem Children’s Zone. I would finance much of the public part of the effort by taxes on over-large university endowments.


19 posted on 06/01/2025 3:04:38 PM PDT by Rockingham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome
“data analysis = quotas”

Quotas: you summarized democrat intentions in just one word.

20 posted on 06/01/2025 3:46:22 PM PDT by jeffersondem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson