Washington, D.C. – Democracy Forward today announced the launch of Red Line for Civil Rights, an oversight and accountability project led by former career leaders of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division. Red Line for Civil Rights tracks, documents, and explains changes in the department’s civil rights enforcement, providing the public with a clear, fact-based record of how the Trump-Vance administration has dismantled, repurposed, and politicized federal civil rights enforcement. The project already includes nearly 150 cases, providing expert, fact-based context and analysis.
“The Trump-Vance administration’s decimation of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has had a deep chilling effect across the nation, as critical cases have been shuttered, abandoned, or ignored. People and communities rely on this important division to address vital cases that threaten their civil rights under our nation’s laws. Red Line for Civil Rights will not only track the cases abandoned by this administration under U.S. Attorney General Bondi, but also provide guidance for the communities that continue to fill the gaps in our pursuit of the rule of law,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “This project reflects the very best of the civil service—experts with deep subject-matter knowledge and a shared commitment to enforcing the nation’s civil rights statutes with rigor and integrity. Democracy Forward is honored to add Regan and Megan to our team, and to support their efforts to uphold and advance civil rights.”
For decades, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division operated as an independent, non-political guardian of civil rights, regardless of who was in the White House. That changed under the Trump-Vance administration. Since January 20, 2025, the division has shut down meritorious civil rights cases involving egregious harm, retreated from enforcement on behalf of historically marginalized communities, and redirected enforcement of civil rights statutes toward political and ideological ends. The administration has also driven out hundreds of career Civil Rights Division attorneys and staff, significantly reducing staffing levels and eroding the expertise and continuity required for credible, even-handed enforcement of civil rights laws. Taken together, these actions reflect a fundamental shift in federal civil rights enforcement, with profound consequences for people across the country.
“This administration’s politicized approach to civil rights enforcement imposes real costs on individuals and entire communities, eroding protections that underpin equal treatment and the rule of law for all,” said Regan Rush, former Chief of the Special Litigation Section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and Director and Editor-in-Chief of Red Line for Civil Rights.
As cataloged by Red Line for Civil Rights, under this administration the Civil Rights Division has undertaken sweeping changes, including:
- Shut down 55+ cases: The division has shut down, dismissed, or reversed its position in more than 55 civil rights cases, leaving entire communities – representing more than 25 million people – without federal enforcement of civil rights laws and fundamental constitutional protections.
- Voting rights enforcement: The division has withdrawn from longstanding efforts to enforce the Voting Rights Act and related statutes, dismissing or abandoning cases protecting Black, Latino, and other voters of color. At the same time, it has redirected federal voting enforcement toward the collection of statewide voter registration data, while sharing that information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—an alarming expansion of federal authority.
- Racial-discrimination enforcement: The division has closed at least 24 cases alleging racial discrimination or involving practices that disproportionately harmed people of color — across employment, education, housing, policing, and voting — while seeking to use civil rights laws to reverse longstanding progress advancing equal opportunity for communities of color.
- Repurposed police misconduct statute: The division has dismissed two proposed consent decrees and repudiated eight investigative findings reports despite thoroughly documented systemic constitutional and civil rights violations by law enforcement. It now uses the police misconduct statute for Second Amendment claims, including efforts to accelerate concealed-carry permitting and expand access to AR-15 rifles and and similar assault weapons.
- Reproductive-health access statute: The Trump-Vance administration has abandoned federal protections for access to reproductive health clinics and dismantled evenhanded enforcement of the FACE Act — substituting viewpoint-based enforcement for the statute’s historic neutrality and putting both patient health access and First Amendment freedoms at risk.
“Red Line brings transparency and accountability to a moment of profound change, making clear what is being lost when federal civil rights enforcement is weakened and repurposed, and why that loss matters,” said Megan Marks, former Deputy Chief of the Special Litigation Section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and Deputy Director and Managing Editor of Red Line for Civil Rights.
Red Line for Civil Rights is a project led by Rush and Marks and powered by Democracy Forward.
Learn more at www.redlinecivilrights.org.
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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
