Dive Brief:
- More than 60 civil rights groups in the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos this week, urging her to choose someone with a record of experience with civil rights issues to head the Ed Department's Office for Civil Rights.
- U.S. News & World Report writes President Donald Trump will officially nominate an assistant secretary for civil rights, but DeVos’ predecessors have historically had a say in the appointment — and civil rights leaders want to avoid an assistant secretary who would roll back the office’s power and influence.
- Gail Heriot, a professor of law at the University of San Diego, is one person reportedly in the running for the job, and she has spoken out against the Office for Civil Rights’ guidance on transgender bathroom policies and on-campus sexual assault prevention and response.
Dive Insight:
DeVos reportedly pushed to keep the transgender bathroom guidance put in place under former president Barack Obama, but she was overruled by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a conversation with Trump. While she spoke out strongly in favor of protecting the civil rights of all the nation’s most vulnerable students, including those who are LGBTQ, it is possible her priorities for the leader of the Office for Civil Rights may be overlooked as well.
Civil rights advocates have been preparing for a shift in monitoring since Trump won the election, however. The Obama administration was particularly aggressive when it came to protecting the civil rights of marginalized students, and it is virtually guaranteed the Trump administration will be less so. The same legal pathways for challenging civil rights violations still exist in the courts, of course.
