Biden admin’s top civil rights lawyer joins NAACP as Trump attacks on voting rights escalate
By Paula Reid, Casey Gannon, CNN
(CNN) — The former assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Joe Biden, Kristen Clarke, is joining the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP) as general counsel, according to the organization.
Clarke was previously the top civil rights lawyer at the Justice Department where she led the Civil Rights Division. Her move to the NAACP comes as the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has been redoubling its efforts around elections and voting rights.
“The move comes as the Trump Administration works to erode democratic institutions and dismantle civil rights protections. To meet the moment, the NAACP is expanding its own capabilities and ramping up its investment in its legal advocacy efforts by hiring the former senior Justice Department official to fight back,” the NAACP said in the news release about Clarke’s hire.
Clarke started her career at the Justice Department as a trial attorney for the civil rights division in 2000. In 2006, she was hired by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to focus on the organization’s work with voting rights and election law. During her time at the NAACP, Clarke worked on several cases defending the Voting Rights Act.
She went on to work on civil rights issues for the state of New York and in courts across the country.
“The NAACP has stood on the front lines of justice for over a century, and I’m deeply honored to join this historic organization at this critical moment in our democracy,” Clarke said in a statement announcing her new role as NAACP general counsel.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is less active during Republican administrations, but the Trump administration has used it to reverse policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and enforce its own agenda.
As of last April, Clarke’s successor, Harmeet Dhillon, had slashed the Civil Rights Division by roughly 70% since assuming the role in order to prioritize goals of the Trump administration.
She said at the time she intended to replace those lawyers so the department could focus on efforts that included rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and what she called “woke ideology,” among other things.
CNN reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
The-CNN-Wire
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