When the Government Stops Defending Civil Rights

During the recent government shutdown , some Republicans in Congress have expressed sympathy for the roughly seven hundred and thirty thousand federal employees who have been performing essential public services without pay. President Donald Trump has struck a different tone, suggesting that some of these workers “don’t deserve” back pay and seizing the opportunity to fire others, particularly those who staff and run what he has called “Democrat agencies.” One of these agencies is the Department of Education, whose Office for Civil Rights enforces laws such as Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act—which bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin—in federally funded schools and colleges. On October 14th, more than two hundred and fifty O.C.R. investigators, mostly att