WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Associated Attorney General Vanita Gupta will leave the Department of Justice at the beginning of February, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced on Thursday, December 21.
“I am deeply grateful to Vanita for her extraordinary service as Associate Attorney General. 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,” Garland said in a press release. “She has distinguished herself as the kind of leader who is also a partner to the career and non-career employees who work for her, to the stakeholders the Department works with, and to the public we all work for.”
Gupta, 49, has been serving in the number three position at the Justice Department since April 2021.
The seasoned civil rights lawyer is responsible for managing civil litigation under the guidance of Garland. Her portfolio encompasses various areas within the Justice Department, including civil rights, antitrust, environmental divisions, and the administration of over $5 billion in federal grants for public safety and criminal justice.
In 2022, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal protections for abortion access, Garland entrusted Gupta with the leadership of a Justice Department reproductive rights task force. Under her leadership, federal authorities took legal action against Idaho for a restrictive abortion law and intensified prosecutions of antiabortion activists accused of impeding access to reproductive clinics.
“As a trusted advisor and key member of the Department’s leadership team charged with overseeing all of our civil litigating components and grantmaking entities, 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,” a report said on Thursday. “Among her many accomplishments during her tenure, Vanita stood up and has led the Department’s Reproductive Rights Taskforce to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law.” The attorney general said Gupta has “played an integral role” in the department’s “efforts to combat violent crime and gun violence and to support the victims of crime” and has facilitated its “efforts to advance a criminal justice system that keeps people safe and reflects our values.”
A report said that the Indian American “has prioritized work that centers its impact on people.” He added, “We at the Justice Department will dearly miss our colleague and friend, but I am confident that her enormous contributions to the Department will continue to be felt long after her departure.”
An alumnus of Yale University and New York University School of Law, Gupta has had a stellar career as a civil rights attorney and Justice Department official. Commencing her journey with two prominent civil and human rights organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), she tackled significant cases. Notably, one of her initial victories involved arguing against the wrongful drug convictions of 38 African American individuals in Tulia, Texas, by all-white juries.
During her tenure at the ACLU, Gupta spearheaded the Smart Justice Campaign, dedicated to ending mass incarceration.