Letter from the President & Executive Director
April 30, 2025
We’re 100 days in. The fight is far from over.
Yesterday marked the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. For the last 100 days, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has been hard at work tracking Trump’s sweeping attacks on our democracy. Want to see what a rollback of our civil rights looks like?
142 executive orders in 100 days — this is more than the last seven presidents (including Trump’s first term) COMBINED. These orders attempt to roll back the clock on educational opportunity and voting rights, take aim at diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, and target communities of color.This administration has even gone so far as to pardon January 6th insurrectionists, who violently attacked the Capitol and our democracy.
Let’s be clear: the Trump administration wants to simultaneously dismantle the rule of law and weaponize it against communities of color.
This is why our work at the Lawyers’ Committee is crucial. We’ve taken strategic action over the last 100 days against the Trump administration, including:
✔️Challenging anti-DEI executive orders: We filed a lawsuit challenging orders designed to restrict or eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. In two successive rulings, a federal judge granted relief to our client, issuing what continues to be the only federal court injunction in the nation blocking those unlawful orders. This case is a significant step toward ensuring that non-profit organizations everywhere can continue to serve our communities without fear of retribution or censorship.
✔️Standing up for the legal profession: We have demonstrated vocal leadership and filed amicus briefs in multiple cases supporting challenges to executive orders attacking law firms that provide pro bono representation. Law firms have answered the call for decades by making robust investments in pro bono civil rights litigation and advocacy. Efforts to intimidate them are also efforts to undermine our agenda.
✔️Defending birthright citizenship: We urged a federal court to block an executive order that seeks to revoke birthright citizenship for people born in the U.S. to undocumented persons or temporary legal residents. Our amicus brief is the only one that explicitly centers racial justice and makes the case that the order would erode American democracy by diminishing the ability for Black Americans and other communities of color to meaningfully participate in our democracy.
✔️Setting the record straight: In this time of peril and uncertainty, our legal experts continue to lead and inform the field, including thousands of other nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, and educational institutions. We have issued counterpoints to misleading guidance and policies from the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice. We also developed a resource document and hosted a public conversation demonstrating how philanthropy can continue to invest in racial justice work despite the administration-wide attack on equity.
It may only be 100 days since Trump took office, but we know this fight is far from over. Together, we will take on the most important fights for equity, access, and justice—and we will win.
With urgency and resolve,
Damon Hewitt
President & Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
P.S. You can support our work defending civil rights and advocating for communities of color by donating to the Lawyers’ Committee today
