



The person nominated to lead President Trump’s civil rights efforts has a lifetime of defending corporations from discrimination complaints.



CNN reported Thursday that Eric Dreiband was nominated as the President’s person to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division.



“Our preliminary review of Mr. Dreiband’s record suggests that he brings little to no experience in the critical areas of voting rights, policing reform or criminal justice generally,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, to Politico.



“Millions of Americans gripped by the rise in racially-motivated hate crimes, voter suppression and an unfair criminal justice system are watching, she continued.”



“Dreiband has devoted most of his career to defending corporations in employment discrimination cases and advocating for weaker anti-discrimination protections in the workplace,” a statement from the NAACP said. “He also has a troubling lack of experience, having done no significant work in other issue areas central to the Division’s mission, including urgent priorities like voting rights and policing reform.”



Dreiband has represented R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in an age discrimination case, CVS Pharmacy in a case against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Abercrombie & Fitch in a case filed by a Muslim woman who said she was not hired by the company because she wore a headscarf.



The White House says it doesn’t select its nominees based on the clients they’ve represented and called Dreiband highly qualified.



ht/ @vivtenney



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