FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2025
Berkeley, CA — The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), together with 101 civil rights and community organizations, has joined a friend of the court brief opposing the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to eliminate the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS).
In an amicus brief submitted in Ethical Society of Police v. Bondi before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, DREDF and co-amici urge the Court to enjoin the administration’s October 31, 2025 dissolution of CRS. The brief describes the administration’s action as a “short-sighted decision that is not only contrary to law, but fundamentally wrong and against the nation’s interests.”
Often referred to as “America’s Peacemaker,” CRS was established under Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to help communities resolve “disputes, disagreements, or difficulties relating to discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin.” Congress has since expanded the agency’s mission to address housing discrimination, protect religious liberty, and respond to discrimination, harassment, and violence targeting other at-risk communities, including disabled people. CRS remains the only federal agency devoted exclusively to civil-rights-focused conflict resolution.
“For more than sixty years, CRS has responded to emergent crises, mediated disputes, promoted diversity and inclusion, and trained public officials and community leaders in peaceful conflict resolution,” said Michelle Uzeta, Executive Director of DREDF. “Eliminating this essential agency at a time of rising bias-motivated attacks, discrimination, and escalating political violence is profoundly irresponsible. CRS’s permanent closure would cause an unspeakable magnitude of harm.”
The amicus brief, prepared by attorneys at the global law firm of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, outlines:
- CRS’s statutory mandates and the legal limits on Executive Branch authority;
- CRS’s historical contributions to community safety, civil-rights enforcement, and violence prevention; and
- The severe harms the dissolution of CRS will inflict on communities that depend on its services.
For more information about national efforts to restore the Community Relations Service, visit the CRS Restoration Project website.
Media Contact
Tina Pinedo
Communications Director
(510) 644-2555
media@dredf.org
About Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) is a national civil rights law and policy center directed by people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities. Our mission is to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development. We work with the core principles of equality of opportunity, disability accommodation, accessibility, and inclusion.