The White House on Thursday nominated a well-known Washington-based labor lawyer to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Eric Dreiband is currently a partner at Jones Day, which has already sent 14 attorneys to work in the Trump administration. One of Dreiband’s law partners there included Don McGahn, who is currently serving as White House counsel.
Dreiband is known for working on discrimination cases, and has defended R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Bloomberg, the Washington Post and Abercrombie and Fitch all in their own discrimination cases.
Under former President George W. Bush, he served as deputy administrator of the Labor Department’s wage and hour division and general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Should he be confirmed by the Senate, Dreiband will oversee the Civil Rights Division as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.
Once called “the crown jewel” of the Justice Department by former Attorney General Eric Holder, the civil rights division oversees federal policies on major issues such as voting and civil rights, police brutality and all forms discrimination.
In a statement, the former Civil Rights Division Head Vanita Gupta called Dreiband “woefully unqualified.”
“This is an administration that has shown an open hostility to, and a demonstrated record of, undermining our nation’s core civil rights. We need a leader who will take the lessons of previous administrations and reject the politicization of the division,” Gupta, who is now president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement.
“We need a leader who will be fair and yet aggressive about protecting civil rights, and can bring together faith, business, and law enforcement communities in pursuit of that goal. Drieband does not have the qualities needed to lead.”
