Brian Laird on WNYC, we were talking about the Justice Department, mainly in the context of the FBI

and the politicization of investigations and prosecutions will actually stay on the Justice Department now,

but in an area that's also vital in our democracy but gets much less attention,

the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

Our guest for this is Ellen Blaine, former chief of civil rights,

for the Southern District of New York, the SDNY.

That's not the Sanitation Department.

That's the arm of the Justice Department, Southern District, based in Manhattan.

She told us off the air that she went through this during Trump One,

and the press is not spending enough time talking about the civil side impact, which she says has a more

direct impact on everyone's daily lives than individual criminal prosecutions. So let's spend

some time on that. One example, she's quoted in a recent New York Times article called Trump's

victory could mean end of inquiry into the NYPD's sex crimes unit. Again, Ellen Blaine is

former chief of civil rights for the Southern District of New York Office of the Justice Department.

Ms. Blaine, thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC. Thanks so much for having me, Brian.

Could you explain basically which civil rights laws DOJ enforces?

Sure. And to do that, I think it might be helpful just to ground us and what DOJ does generally,

because as you mentioned, you know, so much of the publicity is about criminal enforcement.

You know, what indictments are coming down, what indictments might be quashed,

and that is very important. But it really does not impact the vast majority of our daily lives.

And it's so easy to get lost in the acronyms of DOJ, you know, AG versus New York AG, ADA versus

AUSA, that I think it helps to inform our discussion and your

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