Vanita Gupta - Associate Attorney General

Vanita Gupta served as the head of the Civil Rights Division in President Obama's DOJ and is currently the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She is nominated for the third highest position within the DOJ. Gupta's years in public life have proven her dedication to left-wing causes. In addition to working for the Obama administration and the Leadership conference, Gupta has also worked with the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union. Gupta was confirmed as the Associate Attorney General on April 21, 2021 by a vote of 51-49.

Views on Abortion:

• Gupta criticized the Supreme Court's 2020 rule in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor which exempted the religious order from the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate (See link)
• In the hearing for her nomination, Gupta refused to say whether or not a doctor should provide medical care to children born alive after failed abortions (See link)
• NARAL Pro-Choice America praised Gupta, for her commitment to abortion advocacy (See link)

Views on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity:

• During her tenure with the Obama administration's DOJ, Gupta argued in favor of taxpayer-funded hormone treatments for transgender inmates (See link)
• In 2017, she issued a statement criticizing the Supreme Court's decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which protected the creative rights of a Christian baker (See link)
• In 2020, Gupta argued that transgender students must be allowed to compete on teams corresponding with their gender identity instead of their biological sex (See link) 

Miscellaneous:

• In 2012, Gupta wrote an op-ed on criminal justice reform in which she argued for the reduction of penalties for drug offenses and the decriminalization of drug possession (See link)

• Gupta advocated "critical race lawyering" in 2005, saying that Critical Race Theory "helps us understand that underneath the insidious veneer of such code words and mottos as 'the rule of law,' 'colorblindness,' 'equal justice for all,' and 'equal protection,' the law is contingent upon the social and political realities of inequality and racial power" (See link)
• In a 2020 hearing on police reform, Gupta said that all Americans have "implicit bias and racial bias" (See link)