Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon Launches Civil Rights Investigation Into University of Virginia’s DEI Regime

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon is launching a civil rights investigation into the University of Virginia’s continuation of racist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices.

The move comes following calls by the legal campaign group America First Legal (AFL) exposing how the university is refusing to comply with rulings from the administration that DEI is unconstitutional and all related programs should be eliminated.

Rather than remove the programs, the university simply “rebranded” them to alternative job titles. But nobody was fooled.

AFL wrote in a press release last week:

AFL’s letter, including over 48 exhibits, supports DOJ’s April 28, 2025, letter placing UVA on notice for failing to comply with federal civil rights laws, controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent, and recent Executive Orders issued by President Donald Trump. DOJ demanded that UVA certify, with “precision and particularity,” that every division, school, and program had fully complied with a March 7 resolution adopted by UVA’s Board of Visitors. That resolution required UVA to dismantle all DEI-related policies, programs, and preferences that discriminate based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, or other protected characteristics.

DOJ also directed UVA to provide a detailed accounting of every department, role, preference system, and title that had been eliminated; to disclose all individuals who previously held DEI-related positions and whether they remain employed in any capacity; and to produce records demonstrating the full dismantling of DEI across the institution. UVA was required to respond by May 2, 2025.

On April 29, the University adopted a new resolution titled “Advancing Free Inquiry and Viewpoint Diversity at UVA,” claiming it had “made progress” in dismantling DEI while asserting that “additional work remains to be done” to advance “open inquiry” and to cultivate “citizen leaders.”

Rather than certifying compliance with DOJ’s directives, UVA announced the creation of a working group — not to bring the University into compliance with federal law — but to “promote open inquiry, constructive conversation across differences, and development of a civic mindset.” The resolution failed to identify which parts of its $1 billion DEI initiative had been rescinded and provided no evidence that any discriminatory programs had been dismantled.

/1UVA’s Board of Visitors voted to dismantle its DEI infrastructure.

Instead, UVA just rebranded.

When it failed to comply, DOJ demanded proof.

So AFL investigated — and found the truth:

Same people.
Same responsibilities.
Same agenda.
New titles.

We’ve got the receipts. pic.twitter.com/TCSjbM75o9

— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) May 29, 2025

Following the demands from AFL, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed to The Federalist they had opened an investigation into the matter:

The Justice Department confirmed its investigation into the school to America First Legal (AFL), The Federalist learned, after the group sent a 98-page letter to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, a UVA alumna, on Friday detailing how UVA is attempting to disguise its DEI infrastructure in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The university’s Board of Visitors voted to dismantle DEI earlier this year, but actually executing that directive is left to the very people who injected the ideology into the school in the first place, as The Federalist reported.

“UVA has not dismantled its DEI framework — it has merely rebranded it to evade legal scrutiny. What the law prohibits, UVA simply renamed,” AFL counsel Megan Redshaw told The Federalist. “We are grateful the DOJ has taken our findings seriously and is taking action to hold UVA accountable. No institution that receives taxpayer funds is above the law.”

After the UVA board’s vote, the Department of Justice sent an April 28 letter to the school’s president, rector, and legal counsel requiring that the school prove it was dismantling the DEI regime they had built in order to be in compliance with civil rights law.

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has aggressively moved to dismantle DEI initiatives across the federal government, education, and government contractors.

This has also executive orders that eliminate DEI offices, ban race- and sex-based preferences, and mandate strict adherence to merit-based hiring and program eligibility. 

WATCH: President Trump Says He Ended “Bullish*t” DEI – “There Are Only Two Genders: MALE AND FEMALE”

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