Shock as Trump halts new civil rights cases

The US Department of Justice has ordered its civil rights division to halt new cases, further signalling the Donald Trump administration's hostility to racial and gender equality since his return to power.

- Robert Tait

The decision came amid a blur of activity across a range of sectors that sent out simultaneous signals of incipient purges and revenge against political opponents, along with a determination to act on radical campaign pledges.

The call to halt civil rights cases - set out in an instruction to Kathleen Wolfe, the new acting head of the justice department's civil rights division - followed an earlier order putting staff on federal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programmes on immediate leave as a prelude to shutting them down.

Activists called the move "unprecedented" and warned that it indicated a government intention to abandon civil rights and protections against discrimination that have been enshrined in legislation since the 1950s and 60s.

"This should make Americans both angry and deeply worried," Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Washington Post.

"This is more than just a changing course of philosophy - this is exactly what most people feared: a justice department that was created to protect civil rights literally abdicating its duty and responsibility to protect Americans from all forms of discrimination."

An executive order issued by Trump on Monday ordered "the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the federal government, under whatever name they appear".