Civil rights groups sue to stop DOJ from closing office tasked with preventing unrest in cities

Source: CBS News

Updated on: November 25, 2025 / 4:26 PM EST


A group of civil rights organizations is seeking an order to prevent the closure of a Justice Department office dedicated to preventing unrest and violence in U.S. cities. The groups are suing for a preliminary injunction to avert the closure of the Community Relations Service, which was launched in 1964 to avert rioting and racial strife in American communities.

The office has been known informally as "America's Peacemaker." As CBS News reported in April, the Trump administration was planning to shutter the Community Relations Service. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, several organizations, including multiple NAACP branches and the Missionary Baptist Convention of Missouri, argue that the Justice Department is violating the law in closing the office.

"Rather than pursue legislation to eliminate the agency, however, (the Justice Department) set out to destroy the Community Relations Service unilaterally," the lawsuit said. "Defendants did so behind closed doors, without notice or public input, and without consulting the communities that depend on the Community Relations Service." "The Department of Justice refuses to follow the law — and it cannot offer any coherent explanation for its actions," the lawsuit also said. "Instead, the Executive Branch is brazenly defying Congress."

President John F. Kennedy conceived of the office in the early 1960s, saying the federal government should have experts who can "identify tensions before they reach the crisis stage" and "work quietly to ease tensions and improve relations in any community threatened or torn with strife."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/civil-rights-sue-stop-doj-closing-community-relations-service/