DOJ probes whether Chicago mayor discriminated for race

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Monday said it began investigating Chicago’s hiring practices. The agency aims to determine whether Mayor Brandon Johnson engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.

What spurred the investigation? Johnson on Sunday spoke about his administration’s latest initiatives at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago’s Woodlawn suburb. At the historically black church, Johnson underlined the number of top-level officials in his administration who are black—including his chief operations officer, budget director, and head of planning and development. He laid out positions in his administration to ensure that what he called “our people” got a chance to grow their businesses. He also said he preferentially gave city contracts to black-owned businesses.

State and local government employers must follow federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in hiring, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote in a Monday letter to the mayor. She was concerned that Johnson’s administration may have preferentially hired black people in lower-level as well as top positions, she said. 

Dig deeper:Read my report on a judge’s recent ruling tossing out Biden-era gender identity guidance for Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.