Meet Harmeet Dhillon, Trump’s civil rights warrior who once shut up Piers Morgan
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that he would nominate Harmeet K Dhillon, an Indian-origin attorney and longtime Trump ally, to head the Department of Justice’s civil rights division.
“Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished civil liberties,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. He praised her legal efforts in challenging social media companies, pandemic-related religious gathering restrictions, and what he described as “woke policies” by corporations.
Dhillon’s nomination as the assistant attorney general for civil rights marks a shift in Republican administrations’ traditional approach of scaling back work on civil rights, signalling a more combative stance on the culture wars that have come to define present-day America.
A STAUNCH TRUMP LOYALIST
Dhillon, 55, has been a visible and vocal supporter of Trump, earning national attention for her spirited defence of the president and his policies.
She was a legal adviser to his 2020 presidential campaign and co-chaired the group Lawyers for Trump, which challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election. Dhillon’s loyalty to Trump has sometimes put her at odds with fellow Republicans, but her support for him has remained steadfast.
Her advocacy has not been without controversy. During an appearance on British TV personality Piers Morgan’s show in 2020, after the host described Trump as “an ostrich with his head buried in the sand” over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dhillon’s vigorous defence of the president left Morgan visibly frustrated and struggling to get a word in edgewise. He later declared she would not be invited back.
A proud Sikh (the ‘K’ in her name stands for Kaur), she recited an Ardas prayer at the Republican National Convention, attended by Trump, just days after an assassination attempt against him.
FROM CHANDIGARH TO SAN FRANCISCO
Born in Chandigarh, India, in 1969, Dhillon immigrated to the United States with her family at age two. She grew up in a Sikh household in rural North Carolina before moving to New York City.
She attended Dartmouth College, earning a degree in Classical Studies and English, and later received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review.
Dhillon’s early career included a clerkship with Judge Paul V Niemeyer of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and a role in the Constitutional Torts Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. She later gained extensive litigation and constitutional law experience at the prestigious firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
In 2006, she founded her own law practice in San Francisco, focusing on commercial litigation, employment law, and First Amendment rights. She also became a prominent figure in Republican politics, serving as vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party and a member of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
However, politics hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Dhillon. When she ran for RNC chairwoman in 2023, she allegedly faced bigoted attacks from fellow Republicans because of her Sikh faith.
CHAMPIONING CONSERVATIVE CAUSES
Dhillon has built a reputation for taking on high-profile cases central to conservative cultural and legal battles. She represented the Berkeley College Republicans in a 2017 lawsuit against the University of California, Berkeley, for cancelling a speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
In 2019, she sued the California Department of Motor Vehicles, alleging failures to verify citizenship for voter registration.
The Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, will need to approve Dhillon’s nomination. If confirmed, she will join a team led by Pam Bondi, further solidifying Trump’s influence on the Justice Department’s civil rights agenda.