DOJ Issues Civil Enforcement Priorities in Line With President’s Executive Orders

Footnotes for this article are available at the end of this page.

The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) continues to expand the Civil Division’s role in enforcing and implementing policies that have been announced through the President’s Executive Orders.1 On June 11, 2025, shortly after being sworn in, Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) for the Civil Division, Brett A. Shumate, issued a memorandum titled Civil Division Enforcement Priorities (“Enforcement Memo”) expressly directing the division’s lawyers “to use its enforcement authorities to advance the administration’s policy objectives.”2 Specifically, the Enforcement Memo directs attorneys to prioritize investigations and enforcement actions advancing the following five priorities: (1) Combatting Discriminatory Practices and Policies; (2) Ending Antisemitism; (3) Protecting Women and Children; (4) Ending Sanctuary Jurisdictions; and (5) Prioritizing Denaturalization. Each of these priorities incorporates the substantive policy changes that the administration has ordered through executive actions in the areas of civil rights, employment, and immigration, and should be reviewed in that light.

Executive Orders Related to Civil Rights, Employment, and Immigration

On January 20, 2025, as one of his first official acts, President Trump signed Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which effectively terminated federal programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”).3 The order requires federal contractors and grant recipients to certify that they do not operate DEI programs and that such certifications are material to the government’s payment decisions under the False Claims Act (“FCA”).4 Shortly thereafter, on February 5, 2025, Attorney General Bondi issued a memorandum titled Ending Illegal DEI and DEIA Discrimination and Preferences, directing the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to investigate and penalize DEI and DEIA policies, mandates, and programs in both the private sector and federally-funded educational institutions. The memo also called for the development of additional strategies to eliminate such preferences and ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws.5

On January 29, 2025, the President signed Executive Order 14188, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, requiring agencies to identify all civil and criminal authorities within their jurisdiction that could be used to combat antisemitism.6 Agencies were further instructed to inventory and analyze pending administrative complaints involving institutions of higher education related to post-October 7, 2023, campus antisemitism.

Building on these directives, on May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General (“DAG”) Blanche issued a memorandum announcing the “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative.”7 The initiative directs the Civil Rights Division and the Civil Division’s Fraud Section to pursue FCA claims against contractors and grantees alleged to have violated civil rights laws. The memorandum identifies conduct such as DEI programs that assign benefits or burdens based on race, ethnicity, or national origin; tolerance of antisemitism; failure to protect Jewish students; and policies affecting access to single-sex bathrooms or athletics, as potential violations.

Also on January 20, 2025, the President signed Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, directing federal agencies to enforce laws protecting men and women as biologically distinct sexes.8 This was followed by Executive Order 14187, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation (January 28, 2025), which prohibits federal funding for gender-affirming care for individuals under age 19 and directs agencies to prevent such treatments.9 The order also instructs the Attorney General to investigate potential fraud and Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”) violations related to the marketing and provision of gender-affirming care. In an April 22, 2025 memorandum, Preventing the Mutilation of American Children, Attorney General Bondi directed the DOJ and FBI to prosecute female genital mutilation, pursue FCA investigations into allegedly false claims for gender-related care, and proposed creating a federal private right of action for patients seeking to sue care providers.10

In a parallel initiative, Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, signed January 20, 2025, directs the Department of Homeland Security and the attorney general to consider civil and criminal actions against jurisdictions that impede federal immigration enforcement, including the denial of federal funds to such “sanctuary jurisdictions.”11 On February 5, 2025, the attorney general instructed the Civil Division to identify and, where appropriate, challenge state and local laws that conflict with federal immigration law.12 These directives were reinforced by the April 28, 2025, Executive Order 14287, Protecting American Communities Against Criminal Aliens, which mandates the creation of a list of sanctuary jurisdictions and calls for agencies to evaluate the suspension or termination of their federal funding.

DOJ Civil Division Enforcement Priorities

The Enforcement Memo builds on the groundwork laid by the administration in these, and other executive actions, and directs attorneys “to prioritize investigations and enforcement actions advancing these priorities.”

  1. Combatting Discriminatory Practices and Policies

Citing Executive Order 14173, the Enforcement Memo states that “the Civil Division will use all available resources to pursue affirmative litigation combatting unlawful discriminatory practices in the private sector.” This includes advancing the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative by “aggressively” investigating and pursuing FCA violations against recipients of federal funds that knowingly violate civil rights laws. As we have previously outlined, the expansion of the FCA to include alleged civil rights violations and the substantive changes to policies and practices that were previously considered lawful, are subject to challenges in the courts.13 As a result, the nature of the “illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities” to be targeted under the FCA raises more questions than are answered in the memo.

  1. Ending Anti-Semitism

Citing Executive Order 14188, the Enforcement Memo directs Civil Division attorneys to investigate and bring enforcement actions against claimants of federal funds that “knowingly violate federal civil rights laws by participating in or allowing antisemitism.” While most notably directed at institutions of higher education, the memo expressly targets “entities that make claims for federal funds,” a broad category that includes government contractors and grantees, including nonprofits.

  1. Protecting Women and Children

Citing Executive Orders 14168 and 14187, the Enforcement Memo directs attorneys to prioritize investigations of doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and other entities for possible violations of the FDCA and other laws by (1) pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs used in connection with so-called gender transition and (2) dealers such as online pharmacies suspected of illegally selling such drugs, and to “aggressively pursue claims under the False Claims Act against health care providers that bill the federal government for impermissible services.” Here, the Enforcement Memo appears to expand the application of the FDCA to bar the manufacture of any drugs that may be used in providing gender-affirming care (even though such drugs may have been approved by the FDA for other uses) and to make it illegal to sell these drugs (even though it is not illegal to sell them). By labeling gender-affirming care services “impermissible services,” rather than “non-covered services,” for purposes of the FCA, the Enforcement Memo effectively seeks to ban — not just federal reimbursement for these services — but the actual services themselves.

  1. Ending Sanctuary Jurisdictions

In several Executive Orders, 14159 and 14287, as well as the attorney general’s February 5, 2025, memorandum, the administration focused on withholding federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions, or jurisdictions “that interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration law.” The Enforcement Memo takes these efforts further, directing attorneys to “prioritize affirmative litigation to invalidate any State or local laws preempted by Federal law.”

  1. Prioritizing Denaturalization

Denaturalization, or the revocation of citizenship, has historically been used in extraordinary cases, such as cases involving war crimes or terrorism. The Enforcement Memo, however, marks a significant shift in enforcement, directing the Civil Division attorneys to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.” The memo lists ten categories of cases that should be prioritized. While the list includes the traditional categories, e.g., individuals who pose a potential danger to national security; individuals who engaged in torture, war crimes, or other human rights violations; individuals who further or furthered the unlawful enterprise of criminal gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and drug cartels; individuals who committed felonies that were not disclosed during the naturalization process; etc., it also vastly expands the categories for denaturalization. In addition to including “cases referred by U.S. Attorney’s Offices in connection with other criminal charges,” and “any other case the Civil Division determines sufficiently important to pursue,” the memo also states that “these categories do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case,” and further, that “the Civil Division retains the discretion to pursue cases outside of these categories as it determines appropriate.” Under the memo, it appears therefore that denaturalization proceedings are not only encouraged but may be initiated on any basis whatsoever.

Key Takeaways

These policy priorities represent a significant shift in the DOJ’s approach to enforcing civil rights, combating discrimination, and ensuring legal compliance across various sectors, in keeping with the President’s Executives. They also indicate that the Trump administration is willing to pursue novel applications of existing statutes to advance the administration’s priorities with respect to DEI, antisemitism, gender-affirming care, immigration, and citizenship. As a result, it is likely that there will be an increase in FCA cases and DOJ investigations advancing these theories.

 

[1] See AGG’s recent publication, DOJ Expands Use of the False Claims Act to Target DEI and DEIA Initiatives, available here.

[2] See U.S. DOJ Civil Division Memorandum (June 11, 2025), available here.

[3] 90 Fed. Reg. 8633 (January 21, 2025).

[4] 31 U.S.C. § 3729(b)(4).

[5] See Office of the Attorney General Memorandum (February 5, 2025), available here.

[6] 90 Fed. Reg. 8847 (Jan. 29, 2025).

[7] See U.S. DOJ Office of the Deputy Attorney General Memorandum (May 19, 2025), available here.

[8] 90 Fed. Reg. 8615 (Jan. 30, 2025).

[9] 90 Fed. Reg. 8771 (Feb. 3, 2025).

[10] See Office of the Attorney General Memorandum, Bondi Memo: Preventing the Mutilation of American Children (April 22, 2025), available here.

[11] 90 Fed. Reg. 8443 (Jan. 29, 2025).

[12] Office of the Attorney General Memorandum, Sanctuary Jurisdiction Directives (February 5, 2025), available here.

[13] See AGG’s recent publication, DOJ Expands Use of the False Claims Act to Target DEI and DEIA Initiatives, available here.