National Urban League: Confirmation of Blanche as Attorney General "Would Undermine the Very Idea" of Equal Treatment Under the Law

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: CONFIRMATION OF BLANCHE AS ATTORNEY GENERAL “WOULD UNDERMINE THE VERY IDEA” OF EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER THE LAW

NEW YORK (July 15, 2026) – Civil rights, voting rights, and police oversight have been neglected while Acting Attorney General  pursues the president’s personal priorities and ignores orders from the judiciary, National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said, urging Senate leaders to reject his nomination.

“Black communities have already felt the negative impact of his leadership over the Department of Justice,” Morial wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dick Durbin. “Laws and policies that have a disparate impact on Black Americans are no longer considered violations of the Civil Rights Act. Companies that diversify their workforces are being accused of violating the False Claims Act and investigated for advancing “illegal DEI.” Consent decrees and abuse of power investigations have been abandoned, while civil rights organizations that help Black Americans register to vote are criminalized.”

As the November 2026 election approaches, Morial wrote, he is most concerned with the posture the Department of Justice has taken toward voting rights.

“The Department is now supporting state level racial gerrymandering while trying to limit access to mail-in ballots for federal elections,” Morial wrote. “Letters sent from the Civil Rights Division demand states turn over private voter data and threaten to withhold funding from states that do not comply. Voting rights attorneys who were previously tasked with upholding the Voting Rights Act are now targeting poll workers in majority-Black communities and threatening state election officials with criminal prosecution.”

Morial noted that approximately 16,000 Department of Justice employees have either resigned or been fired since the start of the Trump administration, including more than 25% of the Department’s attorney workforce. Those who remain “are being asked to betray their oaths of office and investigate the communities they once protected”  and “ have been effectively barred from enforcing the landmark civil rights laws they swore to uphold.”

The nation’s continued progress toward a multiracial democracy depends upon the rejection of Blanche’s nomination, Morial wrote.