The Root

Last week, President Donald Trump put forth his nominee to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, giving many social justice and LGBTQ activists major pause.

Eric Dreiband, a Washington, D.C., based labor attorney, served as general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President George W. Bush. He has also made a career of defending major entities against discrimination lawsuits. 

CNN reports that Dreiband has represented such companies as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in an age discrimination case; Bloomberg in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit; CVS Pharmacy in an employee severance agreement lawsuit brought by the EEOC and Abercrombie & Fitch in a Supreme Court case involving a Muslim woman who was not hired because she wore a headscarf.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund released a statement last week outlining its opposition to Dreiband, including the fact that he has done no work around voter suppression and policing reform.