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The Dartmouth Review Does It Again: Harmeet Dhillon Confirmed

By Walter Donway

April 29, 2025

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Feature Image by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America.
 
The Senate on April 3 confirmed Harmeet Dhillon to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. The vote was 52–45 with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as the only dissenting Republican. One could say many things, but among them: The Dartmouth Review does it again!

A coalition of 75 civil rights groups, most with members serving as Civil Rights Division lawyers, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, sent a letter to senators urging them to oppose her nomination.

“Ms. Dhillon’s lack of independence and record of going after the rights of the very people that she would have the duty to defend is disqualifying,” the letter reads.
 

The Legendary Dartmouth Review 

Laura Ingraham, Dinesh D’Souza, James Panero—the Dartmouth Review has been a classic “incubator,” but a rarity on Ivy League (or any) U.S. campuses. It is a proving-ground for influential conservative voices in America. It now seems long ago, 1980, but that is when the Review was founded and for some half-century has fostered intellectual debate, unapologetic conservatism, and political activism. Latest in this storied lineage is Harmeet Dhillon, a former editor-in-chief of the Review, whose nomination by President Donald Trump to serve as the Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division had panicked dozens of leftwing activist organizations into opposition to her Senate confirmation.

Founded with encouragement and support of National Review editor, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Review took on the notorious left-liberal culture at Dartmouth College, gaining notoriety for its sharp critiques of progressive campus orthodoxy. Buckley, vocal in his support in its early days, once remarked that the publication was “a necessary irritation” to the college establishment. The Review struggled at first, opposed by the administration and most of the student body, but its staff hung tough to challenge prevailing campus orthodoxies.

Over the years, the Review has nurtured careers in media, academia, and politics.

Over the years, the Review has nurtured careers in media, academia, and politics. Laura Ingraham, host on Fox News, is known for her staunch conservative commentary. Dinesh D’Souza is famous as a political commentator, filmmaker, and author. James Panero is executive editor at The New Criterion. Joseph Rago is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal. And Benjamin Wallace-Wells is a journalist at The New Yorker.

After its early financial hurdles, the Review established a sustainable model through private donations, alumni support, and a dedicated subscriber base. It operates independently of the College and maintains a publishing schedule that varies but often includes biweekly or monthly issues. While its circulation is small compared with national publications, its influence extends far beyond Hanover, NH, with readers across the country tracking its take on campus affairs and broader cultural debates.

A few recent headlines: “Politics, Tantrums, and the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth,” “Former HHS Secretary Alex Azar Talks Medical Financing,” “Cornel West and Robert George Debate on Capitalism vs. Socialism,” ​“A Journey to Lebanon,” ​“Behind Vermont Prison Walls,” and ​“What We Leave Unsaid: On the implications of unspoken topics within the Dartmouth community.”

She made national headlines when she wrote an admittedly sophomoric editorial comparing Dartmouth’s Jewish president with Hitler for persecution of campus conservatives.

Harmeet Kaur Dhillon’s journey is a Dartmouth Review classic. Born in Chandigarh, India, into a Sikh family, as a child, she immigrated with her family to the United States. She graduated from high school at 16 and entered Dartmouth College, where she majored in classical languages and literature and headed the Review. Even then, she made national headlines when she wrote an admittedly sophomoric editorial comparing Dartmouth’s Jewish president with Hitler for persecution of campus conservatives. She has long since explained and apologized, of course. The piece provoked a national debate on free speech, with major media outlets weighing in. How could this early experience in ideological battle fail to shape her legal and political trajectory?

After Dartmouth, she earned a J.D. degree at the University of Virginia School of Law and clerked for Judge Paul Niemeyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. After a series of positions in the nation’s elite law firms, she founded the Dhillon Law Group, specializing in First Amendment rights, election law, and business litigation.

She has consistently championed conservative legal causes.

She has consistently championed conservative legal causes. For example, in 2017, she represented the Berkeley College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation in a lawsuit against UC Berkeley, alleging discrimination against conservative speakers after the university canceled an event featuring Ann Coulter. In 2020, she represented journalist Andy Ngo in a lawsuit against Antifa members, seeking damages for alleged assaults and harassment. And during the COVID-19 epidemic, she filed numerous lawsuits challenging California’s COVID-19 restrictions, arguing they violated constitutional rights. She has worked on multiple legal actions advocating stricter voter ID laws and challenging perceived irregularities in election administration.

 

The Nomination Unites the Left in Opposition

When Trump nominated Dhillon in December 2024, he wrote on Truth Social that she “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.” He noted that she “is one of the top Election lawyers in the Country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted.”

So, imagine how Dhillon’s nomination to lead the Civil Rights Division has been received by a department described as only hiring lawyers who are Democrats, only from left activist organizations. Trump’s appointment is both unsurprising and a pivotal moment in the ideological battle over civil rights law. The division, historically a stronghold of liberal activism, has been described by former Attorney General Eric Holder as the DOJ’s “crown jewel.” Critics argue that it has operated as a law unto itself, driven more by progressive ideology than legal principles.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel recently highlighted the entrenched resistance Dhillon will face, calling the division “the most treacherous bog” in the federal government. Progressive groups, including the NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, and La Raza, have mounted a fierce opposition campaign, warning that her leadership could herald an end to their favored policies on voting rights, affirmative action, gay-lesbian rights, and workplace regulations.

Dhillon’s jurisprudence aligns with the Federalist Society’s principles of textualism and originalism—interpretations that prioritize the Constitution’s original meaning. This suggests significant policy shifts. She is likely to scrutinize affirmative action for race-based policies and push for colorblind interpretations of civil rights law. She is expected to emphasize election integrity, potentially advocating stricter voter ID laws. She has been a long-time champion of cases that challenge progressive constraints on religious expression and conservative speech. And consistent with Trump’s broader goal of reducing the “deep state’s” influence, she may work to curtail bureaucratic overreach in civil rights enforcement.

 

The Importance of One of Trump’s Choices

It may be surprising to hear that a president, today, makes some 4,000 political appointments. The confirmation of just one such appointment, Harmeet Dhillon, represents a tectonic shift in the ideology of the Justice Department. Now, she will face a deeply entrenched bureaucracy and fierce opposition from progressive legal activists. Her tenure at the Dartmouth Review and her legal career suggest that she is well-prepared for the battles ahead.

She will face a deeply entrenched bureaucracy and fierce opposition from progressive legal activists.

The Dartmouth Review’s legacy continues with Dhillon, her nomination surviving the concerted Leftist attack in the Senate. Whether she can overcome the Civil Rights Division’s entrenched resistance remains to be seen, but her victory is a typical Trump Molotov cocktail tossed into federal civil rights enforcement.

For all the apocalyptic headlines about Trump’s now almost daily bombshells, it is worth realizing that “small actions” like the appointment of Dhillon have the potential to redefine American governance. And to affirm the enduring impact of initiatives in higher education on behalf of ideological “diversity, equality, and inclusiveness,” like the Dartmouth Review.

 

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