January 21, 2025

As the new administration takes office, the policies and individual wish list items in Project 2025 should all be considered in play. It is entirely plausible to expect less government enforcement of civil rights violations, making it even more important for you to take action on your own. The San Francisco civil rights attorneys at the Helbraun Law Firm can help you file a lawsuit if your civil rights have been violated by police misconduct.

The authors of Project 2025 have devoted scores of pages in their 900-page agenda to opposition to civil rights and government measures to enforce the law. Their proposals will do nothing less than remove valuable government tools for addressing discrimination, and even eliminate a crucial way that you are able to prove that your civil rights have been violated. Much remains to be seen about how the next four years will transpire, but it is essential that you maintain your own vigilance and are prepared to take action if you have been the victim of police misconduct or civil rights violations.

Contact the civil rights and police misconduct attorneys at the Helbraun Law Firm to schedule a free initial consultation. We will discuss your case and help you determine whether to file a lawsuit. You can also read testimonials from our satisfied clients to learn more about how we fight for them.

Project 2025 Threatens DOJ’s Ability to Take Action Against Police Departments

The results of the recent presidential election mean that some elements of Project 2025 may become law or policy in the coming years. The authors of this agenda have taken clear issue with the protections afforded to many Americans under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If these viewpoints become law, it may reduce the Civil Rights protections for many and even change how police departments with a history of racism are reformed (if they are even addressed at all).

One of the most important tools in civil rights enforcement is the Department of Justice’s ability to take administrative measures in the presence of discrimination. In the law enforcement realm, the Department of Justice may often make a consent decree as a sort of performance improvement plan for local police departments. For example, in 1979, the San Francisco Police Department entered into a consent decree as a settlement with the federal government to address discriminatory hiring practices in the department. The consent decree was a valuable tool to increase the presence of minorities in the SFPD. The authors of Project 2025 want to take away the DOJ’s ability to act outside of court to address discrimination. This step would lead to reduced civil rights enforcement in many areas.

Project 2025 Proposes to Change the Civil Rights Division’s Mission

Project 2025 also threatens to turn the function of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division on its head. Instead of acting to enforce civil rights laws and address discrimination, the authors of this agenda paradoxically want to harness the Civil Rights Division to prosecute instances in which governments, businesses and institutions of higher learning operate to implement an agenda of diversity, equity and inclusion.

When it comes to the provisions of the Civil Rights Act dealing with discrimination in employment, the authors of Project 2025 want to turn their fire on the use of anything that promotes critical race theory, equity, or any type of racial classification. On the employment front, the authors of Project 2025 want to remove the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s ability to issue and enforce regulations, opting to restrict the EEOC’s role to only litigation. These changes would remove some of the front-line protections against employment discrimination by taking away the EEOC’s rulemaking ability.

Perhaps the most dangerous change that Project 2025 seeks to implement is the removal of the disparate impact test from civil rights enforcement. For decades, plaintiffs and governments have been able to show that an action or policy is discriminatory because it has a disparate impact on certain protected classes. Although discrimination cases are rarely easy to prove, disparate impact at least keeps a victim from having to prove a discriminatory intent. Without the disparate impact test, it could become virtually impossible to prove a civil rights case, and discrimination may be unchecked in every way.

It is impossible to know what in Project 2025 is an aspirational target versus what the incoming administration actually intends to implement as policy and law. Some of the items on the Project 2025 wish list must be enacted through a change in the law, which Congress needs to pass, while others can be simply a matter of changing policy. Regardless, one should consider anything that is in Project 2025 to be fair game for a change in law or policy in the coming four years. Even still, the principles behind Project 2025 have caused many businesses to make changes on their own that negatively impact civil rights and diversity, either as a result of backlash or in anticipation of future action.

Contact a San Francisco Civil Rights and Police Misconduct Law Firm Today

If your civil rights have been violated by law enforcement, a San Francisco police misconduct attorney at the Helbraun Law Firm can help. Call us today at 415-982-4000 to schedule a free initial consultation.

David M. Helbraun

Attorney David M. Helbraun at the Helbruan Law Firm in San Francisco emphasize litigation and conflict resolution in the areas of legal malpractice, civil rights & police misconduct and insurance & tort litigation.