For nearly 70 years, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division led efforts to protect voting rights and fight racial discrimination at the polls. But in January 2025, DOJ political appointees froze all new civil rights cases and dismissed every major pending voting rights lawsuit—prompting most career attorneys to leave the Division.

With federal challenges to restrictive voting laws now dropped in several states, the fight for voting rights falls to individual voters and advocacy groups, raising urgent questions about the future of enforcement.

In this episode Dani Schulkin, Director of Democracy Initiatives at Just Security, is joined by Chiraag Bains. Chiraag is a senior fellow at Democracy Fund, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and former Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for Racial Justice & Equity. He also previously served in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

Show Notes:

Chiraag Bains, “What Just Happened: The Trump Administration’s Dismissal of Voting Rights Lawsuits.”
Collection: Just Security’s Coverage of Trump Administration Executive Actions
Just Security’s DOJ Archives
Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

What Just Happened: Dismissal of Voting Rights Lawsuits