Harmeet K. Dhillon
Harmeet Kaur Dhillon is the Founder of the Center for American Liberty and currently serves as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed by the Senate on April 3, 2025.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
President Donald Trump nominated Harmeet for the role of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in December 2024. The United States Senate confirmed her for this position, and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi swore her in on April 7, 2025.
In her role at the Attorney General’s office, Harmeet serves as the principal advisor to the U.S. Attorney General on civil rights litigation and policy. She oversees enforcement of important federal civil rights laws, including but not limited to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
To assist her in carrying out these federal law responsibilities, Harmeet supervises more than 300 U.S. attorneys in 11 sections of the Civil Rights Division, including its Employment Litigation Section, Voting Section, and Disability Rights Section.
Under Harmeet’s leadership, the Civil Rights Division has prioritized cases in federal courts involving antisemitism (especially on campus protests), gun rights enforcement, religious liberties focused on Christian groups, and challenges to transgender rights in sports.
Founder of the Center for American Liberty
In 2018, Harmeet founded the Center for American Liberty as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the civil liberties of Americans who have been left behind by other civil rights legacy organizations.
The Center for American Liberty leverages a nationwide network of attorneys to zealously advocate for individual liberty and to combat illegal discrimination. Examples of its litigation support for individual civil rights plaintiffs include:
- Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals: a case set for trial in April of 2027 that involved the practice of gender transitioning on a teenage girl experiencing gender dysphoria, who was subjected to testosterone therapy, puberty blockers, and a cosmetic double mastectomy without informing her or her parents of less radical treatment options.
- Hein v. University of Nebraska Medical Center: a case similar to Chloe Cole’s, in which a 16-year-old girl was rushed into a double mastectomy after only two clinic visits.
- Regino v. Staley: a case challenging the parental secrecy policy used by the Chico Unified School District that allows schools to socially transition students without notifying parents. In April 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of this case, ruling that the parents’ Fourteenth Amendment due process claims must proceed to trial.
Legal Career & Landmark Cases
After graduating from law school in 1993, Harmeet served as a clerk for Judge Paul Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and worked at various law firms as an international corporate litigation attorney in New York, London, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco.
In 2006, Harmeet founded the Dhillon Law Group as its managing partner. The firm grew to offices in California, New Jersey, Florida, and Virginia. Upon her Senate confirmation in April 2025, Harmeet departed the firm to serve in government.
Among her many notable cases while at the Dhillon Law Group, Harmeet has brought legal challenges against the University of California, Berkeley over its free speech policy; against an Antifa organization for an assault on a conservative journalist; against several states for their restrictive responses to Covid-19; and against various large tech companies for a host of civil rights violations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in California, Dhillon represented clients with legal claims in state and Federal courts, challenging the state’s response to the pandemic.
In her leading role defending fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution with the Center for American Liberty, Harmeet represented plaintiffs before the U.S. Supreme Court and won three favorable Court decisions involving religious organizations in 2021:
- South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (enjoining the state of California from using COVID-19 to ban indoor religious worship)
- Harvest Rock Church v. Newsom (another case preventing California from enforcing a total indoor-worship ban targeting churches)
- Tandon v. Newsom (blocking California from enforcing restrictions on in-home religious gatherings)
Awards & Recognition
Harmeet is a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer who has received many awards and recognitions in her law practice. She is ranked AV by Martindale Hubbell as a distinguished and ethical attorney.
- Harmeet was named by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association as one of the nation’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” for 2007.
- She won the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California’s Outstanding Attorney Award for 2010.
- In 2012, Harmeet won the SABANA Cornerstone Award for her career’s work in civil rights and her pathbreaking role in politics.
- In 2013, she was awarded SALDEF’s Public Service Award for her work on behalf of Sikh civil rights.
Harmeet has been honored for several years with the distinction “Northern California Super Lawyer” by American Lawyer magazine. In 2018, California’s Daily Journal legal publication named her one of California’s top 100 attorneys, and in 2019, named her one of California’s top women attorneys.
Education
Harmeet was born in Chandigarh, India, in 1968. Her family first moved to London before eventually settling in the United States, where her father, Tejpal Singh Dhillon, practiced orthopedic surgery.
Harmeet graduated from Dartmouth College in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in classics. While at Dartmouth, she became a writer and eventually the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review.
After graduating from Dartmouth, she attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served on the Virginia Law Review editorial board and earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1993.
After graduating from Dartmouth, she attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served on the Virginia Law Review editorial board and earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) in 1993.
Media & Commentary
Harmeet is a frequent television news commentator and legal and current affairs columnist. She often appears as a guest commentator on Fox News and other major networks, including CNN and MSNBC, to discuss legal and political issues from a conservative perspective.
In these appearances, she is known for defending civil liberties, free speech, and religious freedom, and has developed a national profile through her cable news appearances and active social media presence.
Harmeet is active on X, highlighting civil rights violations, promoting Justice Department actions, and responding to public complaints.