President-elect Donald Trump has picked Chandigarh, India-born Sikh American attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon for a key role in his second term as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
Dhillon, 55, becomes the fourth Indian American to land a key job in the Trump 2.0 Cabinet, joining Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (National Institutes of Health), Vivek Ramaswamy (Department of Government Efficiency), and Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel (FBI Director).
Dhillon, who represented California on the Republican National Committee, would have a prominent role in enforcing voting rights if her nomination is confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans have a majority.
“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during Covid, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
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“Harmeet is one of the top Election lawyers in the Country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Law School, and clerked in the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,” he wrote in her praise.
“Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community. In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY,” Trump added. “Congratulations Harmeet!”
Thanking Trump for her selection “Harmeet K. Dhillon@pnjaban” posted on X, “I’m extremely honored by President Trump’s nomination to assist with our nation’s civil rights agenda. It has been my dream to be able to serve our great country, and I am so excited to be part of an incredible team of lawyers led by @ Pam Bondi. I cannot wait to get to work!”
Thanking her family, she wrote, “I would not be here today without my amazing mother and brother’s support, and my beloved father Tejpal and husband Sarv, who did not live to see this day. I hope I will honor their memories, with God’s grace.
Dhillon, a practicing Sikh who came to the US with her family at the age of 2, delivered a Sikh prayer onstage in the 2016 and 2024 Republican National Conventions.
A loyal supporter of Trump, she was a legal adviser to his 2020 presidential campaign and co-chaired the group Lawyers for Trump, which challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Dhillon founded a law practice, Dillon Law Group Inc, and a nonprofit firm called the Center for American Liberty. She courted controversy filing free speech-suits on behalf of conservative clients, including the Berkeley College Republicans and a Google engineer who was fired for his memo blasting the company’s diversity policies. She led multiple lawsuits against the state of California in 2020, challenging Covid-19 policies like stay at home orders and mail-in ballots.
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She was raised in a Sikh household in North Carolina before relocating to New York City. Dhillon earned her undergraduate degree in Classical Studies and English from Dartmouth College and later completed her Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review.
Dhillon’s early career included a clerkship with Judge Paul V Niemeyer of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and a role in the Constitutional Torts Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. She later gained extensive litigation and constitutional law experience at the prestigious firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.