(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is being praised by conservatives as a fighter for free speech and biological reality.
President Trump announced Harmeet Dhillon as his pick for assistant attorney general. Dhillon has represented a number of high-profile clients, including pro-life journalist David Daleiden, The Daily Wire (against President Joe Biden’s COVID shot mandate), and “detransitioner” Chloe Cole.
“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Harmeet is one of the top Election lawyers in the Country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted.”
He said Dhillon “will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY.”
“It has been my dream to be able to serve our great country, and I am so excited to be part of an incredible team of lawyers led by [Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi]. I cannot wait to get to work,” Dhillon wrote on X.
Dhillon will replace Kristen Clarke, Biden’s appointee to the position. Under her leadership, Clarke has aggressively used the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to prosecute peaceful pro-lifers protesting outside of abortion vendors.
Students for Life of America directed LifeSiteNews to comments from its president calling for Dhillon to defend the civil rights of pro-lifers and mentioning her work as Daleiden’s attorney.
“Thanks for your defense of pro-life Americans like David Daleiden for his journalistic efforts to show what Planned Parenthood has allegedly been doing with baby body parts, and please protect the civil rights of protect peaceful pro-life protestors prosecuted through the abuse of the… FACE Act,” President Kristan Hawkins wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“The Pro-Life Generation can’t wait to see you in action,” Hawkins wrote.
Congratulations @pnjaban! Thanks for your defense of pro-life Americans like David Daleiden for his journalistic efforts to show what Planned Parenthood has allegedly been doing with baby body parts, and please protect the civil rights of protect peaceful pro-life protestors… https://t.co/BvF6PZVsXg
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) December 10, 2024
Former U.S. Senate counsel Mike Davis said the selection “sends a very clear message Trump intends to end the politicization and weaponization of intelligence agencies and law enforcement against political opponents—and hold accountable those who violate the constitutional rights of Americans.”
“She is one of the best civil-rights attorneys in America,” Davis stated in a news release through his Article III Project.
Dhillon also has taken on gender ideology and the transgender surgery industry.
She is representing Chloe Cole, who had her breasts removed as a teenager, in her lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente.
Daily Signal managing editor Tyler O’Neil praised Dhillon, calling her “a fearless advocate, not just for pro-lifers, but for the civil liberties of many who stand against the woke orthodoxies of the day.”
“Dhillon also represented Americans who lost their freedoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. She filed more than a dozen lawsuits against pandemic orders in California, representing pastors, businesses, and citizens,” O’Neil wrote.
The California attorney’s defense of religious liberties also drew the interest of O’Neil, who noted her comments during a U.S. House hearing on COVID lockdowns.
“One of the most egregious violations of our First Amendment freedoms was the treatment of religious Americans as second-class citizens, as vectors of disease,” Dhillon said. “From the very beginning of the pandemic, governors across the country discriminately labeled houses of worship, and by extension the First Amendment, as ‘non-essential,’ while at the same time leaving their secular counterparts open for business. In my state, California, marijuana, liquor, and big-box retailers were deemed essential, but God was banned.”
The dean of University of California, Berkeley’s law school complained Dhillon had not done enough to fight for “gender identity.”
“Harmeet Dhillon is very conservative and hardly a champion of civil rights as it is generally understood,” Professor Erwin Chemerinsky told The Los Angeles Times.
“She was very active in challenging COVID restrictions. She has filed suits when conservatives claim their speech was restricted. She has challenged protection of [so-called] transgender students,” Chemerinsky said. “But there is nothing in her record about fighting [alleged] discrimination based on race or sex or sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Dhillon is a practicing Sikh, and a prayer she offered at the Republican National Convention drew criticism.
She chanted a prayer to “Waheguru,” though she later said that Sikhs believe in monotheism.