Civil Rights
Oct. 15, 2026
The Trump DOJ's anti-civil rights division
The Trump administration's Civil Rights Division has shifted its focus from protecting historically marginalized groups against discrimination to challenging diversity, equity and inclusion programs and alleged discrimination against white Americans, raising questions about its commitment to equal enforcement of civil rights laws.
William Rothbard
Email: Rothbard@FTCAdLaw.com
William Rothbard also represents clients in federal and state deceptive advertising investigations and enforcement actions as well as consumer class actions and has litigated and settled scores of matters. He provides advertising-related transactional services, including contracts, trademarks, sweepstakes and contests. Bill writes and speaks often on advertising and marketing law topics. He has served as the Editor of Competition, an antitrust and trade regulation journal published by the California State Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, and is the author of the legal blog, FTCAdLaw Alert, which can be found on his firm website. He has served as an advertising law expert in FTC-related cases and serves as an expert within his field in the global expert consulting network of the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Prior to entering private practice, Bill was an attorney with the FTC, holding positions as an advertising enforcement attorney, Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and Attorney-Advisor to the FTC Chairman. He also served as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights. He is a graduate of UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of Law) and The University of Michigan. In his civic life, Bill is a past Chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, past President of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, former Board Member of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, and a former candidate for the California Assembly.
In 1957, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division was founded following enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and only three years after the historic Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Throughout its storied, nearly 70-year history, it has been on the front lines of and synonymous with America's dedication to reversing two centuries of systemic racial and ethnic bigotry and seeking to make real the Declaration of Independence's promise o...
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