Vice: “The Trump administration is pursuing far fewer civil rights cases — including hate crimes, police bias, and disability rights cases — than the Obama or Bush administration did, an exclusive VICE News analysis of Department of Justice data shows. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division — which has enforced nearly every pivotal moment of rights reform since its creation in 1957 — has started 60 percent fewer cases against potential violations during the first two years of the Trump administration than during the Obama years and 50 percent fewer than under George W. Bush. The decreased caseload marks a dramatic change in approach for the primary DOJ division devoted to investigating accusations of racial, ethnic, and other forms of bias. Trump and his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, have been clear about their opposition to some of the division’s work, including investigations of police departments and the enforcement of disabled people’s rights, two areas where the division’s work has slowed to a near standstill.

The Civil Rights Division has been crucial in historic efforts to protect Americans’ rights. In the wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the division began the process of desegregating schools across the nation. After the 1991 beating of Rodney King at the hands of Los Angeles police officers, the same unit investigated the LAPD and later compelled them to adopt significant reforms. More recently, the division charged James Fields with a hate crime for driving his car into a crowd of protestors in Charlottesville and killing Heather Heyer in 2017…”