The former assistant legal professional normal for civil rights underneath President Joe Biden, Kristen Clarke, is becoming a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Color People (NAACP) as normal counsel, based on the group.
Clarke was beforehand the top civil rights lawyer on the Justice Department the place she led the Civil Rights Division. Her transfer to the NAACP comes as the Justice Department underneath President Donald Trump has been redoubling its efforts round 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 mentioned within the information launch about Clarke’s rent.
Clarke began her profession on the Justice Department as a trial legal professional for the civil rights division in 2000. In 2006, she was employed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to focus on the group’s work with voting rights and election legislation. During her time on the NAACP, Clarke labored on a number of circumstances defending the Voting Rights Act.
She went on to work on civil rights points for the state of New York and in courts throughout the nation.
“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 mentioned in a press release saying her new function as NAACP normal counsel.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is much less lively throughout Republican administrations, however the Trump administration has used it to reverse insurance policies that promote range, fairness and inclusion and implement its personal agenda.
As of final April, Clarke’s successor, Harmeet Dhillon, had slashed the Civil Rights Division by roughly 70% since assuming the function as a way to prioritize objectives of the Trump administration.
She mentioned on the time she supposed to switch these legal professionals so the division may focus on efforts that included rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and what she referred to as “woke ideology,” amongst different issues.