DOJ's new head of civil rights cares more about corporate rights
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There’s no arguing that Eric Dreiband is inexperienced. Unfortunately, most of the experience he does have involves hyper-partisan lawyering and pro-corporate endeavors. That’s hardly the background that typically qualifies an attorney to lead the DeparDOJ's new head of civil rights cares more about corporate rights
There’s no arguing that Eric Dreiband is inexperienced. Unfortunately, most of the experience he does have involves hyper-partisan lawyering and pro-corporate endeavors. That’s hardly the background that typically qualifies an attorney to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Yet the Senate has just confirmed him, by a vote of 50-47. Dreiband spent three years under Kenneth Starr when he served as independent counsel, and he defended HB2, the North Carolina anti-transgender bathroom law. And that’s just his formal legal work. Dreiband also opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2008. Meanwhile, he’s a proponent of letting companies discriminate against applicants with a criminal record. His corporate resume includes arguing that Abercrombie & Fitch should be able to discriminate against a job applicant wearing a headscarf and getting R.J. Reynolds off the hook for age discrimination. Dreiband also defended Bloomberg against charges it lowered pregnant women’s salaries. As a general matter, he’s no fan of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Vanita Gupta, head of the Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights, confirms as much: “Dreiband has spent most of his career opposing important civil rights legislation and defending corporations who discriminate against their workers.” There’s little doubt he’s going to add promoting “religious freedom” to his ignoble mission. “The head of the Civil Rights Division is no ordinary government appointment—it is an advocate for the most vulnerable among us,” Representative Sheila Jackson Lee reminds us. “Yet, the individual confirmed yesterday has a long track record of positions inapposite to the mandate of the Civil Rights Division.” Even Republicans recognize Dreiband is a bad choice to head the Civil Rights Division. That’s why they took more than a year to put Dreiband up for a floor vote. That they had so much trouble getting to a vote is especially significant in light of how integral his role is to a smoothly functioning DOJ. Read more