‘Disdain Toward What Is Sensible’: Chicago Mayor Says He’s Not Intimidated By DOJ Probe Into Alleged ‘Pattern of Practice of Discrimination,’ Launched After He Bragged About Hiring Black Staff
Comments made Sunday by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have led the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the progressive-run city’s hiring practices.
Johnson acknowledged he might be courting trouble in his remarks to a Woodlawn church touting the number of Black employees hired by his administration.
“There are some detractors that will push back on me and say, ‘The only thing the mayor talks about is the hiring of Black people.’ No,” Johnson said. “What I’m saying is when you hire our people, we always look out for everybody else. We are the most generous people on the planet. I don’t know too many cultures that have play cousins.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Johnson’s remarks prompted the investigation, citing potential violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race.
“Considering these remarks, I have authorized an investigation to determine whether the City of Chicago is engaged in a pattern of practice of discrimination as set forth above,” Dillon said.
Johnson said in a Tuesday press conference that he would not be intimidated by the DOJ.
“This administration has obviously demonstrated a great deal of animus and disdain toward what is sensible about our country, and that is the diversity of our country,” the mayor said. “And I’m very proud of the fact that we have one of the most, if not the most, diverse administrations in the history of Chicago.”
In its letter to the city, the DOJ pointed out specific comments Johnson made to the church about key hirings. Johnson boasted that the deputy mayor, the head of the Department of Planning and Development, the budget director, and the head of infrastructure are Black women. He went on to say his chief operations officer and senior adviser are Black men.
“You then said that you were ‘laying’ these positions ‘out’ to ‘ensure that our people get a chance to grow their business,’” the DOJ letter states. “If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions.”
The DOJ already has a lawsuit pending against the City of Chicago, the state of Illinois and Cook County over their “sanctuary laws” that limit cooperation with immigration authorities.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Illinois in February, accuses those jurisdictions of “making it more difficult for, and deliberately impeding, federal immigration officers’ ability to carry out their responsibilities.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker denied any violations of federal law.
“Instead of working with us to support law enforcement, the Trump Administration is making it more difficult to protect the public, just like they did when Trump pardoned the convicted January 6 violent criminals. We look forward to seeing them in court,” the governor’s office said in February.
The most recent lawsuit against Chicago comes at a time when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has come under attack from the current administration. The Trump DOJ had ordered its investigators to use the landmark civil rights legislation to combat anti-Semitism and alleged discrimination against Christians and whites.
As one critic said, any discrimination merits investigation but, “The problem lies not in including those areas but rather in ignoring or discounting all the other forms of bias,” wrote Robert Weiner, who formerly served as senior counsel in the front office of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. He is now director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.