Civil Rights

Enforcement of civil rights

The US Attorney’s Office campaigns for the aggressive enforcement of state civil rights law in Maryland. With limited exceptions, the US Attorney’s Office represents the United States of America, not a specific individual.

Civil Rights Unit

The Maryland District Civil Rights Department uses criminal and civil law to protect the civil and constitutional rights of all Maryland residents, including the most vulnerable members of our communities.

The Civil Rights Unit enforces federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, color, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, and citizenship. To achieve this goal, attorneys in the Office’s Civil and Criminal Law departments work together and with partners at the federal, state and local levels to investigate and advance civil rights cases affecting Maryland residents.

Specifically, the U.S. Attorney’s Civil Rights Unit for Maryland:

• Investigating and prosecuting violations of criminal civil rights laws, including hate crimes and violations of the color of the law;

• Uses civil law to enforce civil rights and address patterns or practices of discrimination in areas such as housing, education and employment;

• protects the civil rights of service members;

• Liaise with the public sector, the private sector and non-profit institutions and organizations;

• Develops working relationships with local, state and state law enforcement agencies in Maryland focused on civil rights enforcement;

• Coordinates with the US Attorney’s Department of National Security on domestic terrorism allegations and investigations to ensure that civil rights laws, including those related to hate crimes and racially motivated crimes, are considered and applied as appropriate;

• Assists Maryland counties and local governments in identifying and applying for grants and funding opportunities that are administered by the Department of Justice;

• Facilitates the collection of data in Maryland on suspected civil rights violations; and

• Partner and coordination with the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice.

Range

In addition to investigating and prosecuting violations of federal civil rights law, the Civil Rights Unit also provides liaison and training for attorneys, state and local agencies, law enforcement agencies, and community members across Maryland. The public relations work of the civil rights department aims to get in contact with the public in order to identify and remedy civil rights violations; His training efforts are intended to proactively educate people about their rights and obligations under the law in order to prevent violations of civil rights from the outset.

How to Report a Civil Rights Violation

Civil criminal matters (such as causing or attempting to harm a victim based on race, color, gender, or sexual orientation) are generally investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) before referring any dispute to us will. Contact your local FBI office to report a civil rights criminal matter. You can also file a criminal complaint directly with the Department of Justice’s Action Center at: https://civilrights.justice.gov.

To report a non-criminal civil rights issue (e.g., racial discrimination in home ownership), please complete a civil rights complaint form. The completed forms should be emailed to [email protected].

Please note that while the scope of our civil rights practice is broad, our powers to investigate individual complainants for alleged civil rights violations and to seek help are limited. We can only investigate suspected discriminatory behavior and seek remedial action only if permitted to do so by a specific law and in the manner prescribed by that law. In some cases, this means that we can only investigate and try to resolve patterns of unlawful discriminatory behavior, not individual incidents.

External resources

Many civil claims must first be investigated by another federal agency before referring them to us for litigation. More resources can be found at: