A top official at the Department of Justice will leave to focus on abortion access efforts and police reform issues.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is the third highest-ranking official in the department. She oversees civil litigation as well as the Environmental and Natural Resources division.
Gupta will leave her office in early 2024.
“Vanita’s commitment to the pursuit of justice, and her relentless focus on bringing people together to find common ground, has made her an incredibly effective leader in dealing with some of the most complex challenges facing the American people,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement to CNN. “Vanita has played an essential role in our work to fulfill DOJ’s mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights. … I am confident that her enormous contributions to the Department will continue to be felt long after her departure.”
Gupta was confirmed as associate attorney general in April of 2021, following a 51 to 49 vote. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote in favor of her confirmation.
"Not only is Ms. Gupta the first woman of color to ever be nominated to the position, she is the first civil rights attorney ever to be nominated to the position," said then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the vote, per NPR. "That's shocking, really. We never have had a former civil rights attorney serving in such a position of prominence at the Justice Department."
From October 15, 2014 to January 20, 2017, Gupta was the Acting Assistant Attorney General and Head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Gupta is the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and has been a vocal critic of Republicans. Prior to her time with the Justice Department, she rose through the ranks of the American Civil Liberties Union from staff attorney in 2006 to Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice. Additionally, she’s worked as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.
Gupta is a graduate of Yale University and New York University School of Law. Her husband, Chinh Q. Le, was the legal director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia.
“Over her career, Gupta has earned a reputation for working closely and collaboratively with law enforcement, departments of corrections and across the political spectrum to advance smart policing and criminal justice reforms,” reports The Economic Times. “Through her work with the ACLU, she has been involved in reform initiatives around the country pertaining to federal and state policing, sentencing, drug policy and criminal law. Her recent work has focused on building a bipartisan consensus to end overreliance on incarceration.”
