Harmeet Dhillon — one of California’s most prominent Republican Party operatives, a cultural crusader against “woke” politics and a fervent champion of President-elect Donald Trump — was named Monday by Trump to a top civil rights post in the U.S. Department of Justice.

If confirmed, Dhillon would be the second woman to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, following President Biden’s choice of longtime civil rights lawyer Kristen Clarke. The office is tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws across a wide swath of American life.

A frequent commentator on conservative media, Dhillon has long been one of the most charismatic figures in the California GOP. She made an unsuccessful but closely watched play for Republican National Committee chair in 2023.

“Harmeet Dhillon is very conservative and hardly a champion of civil rights as it is generally understood,” legal scholar and UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said by email Tuesday. “She was very active in challenging COVID restrictions. She has filed suits when conservatives claim their speech was restricted. She has challenged protection of transgender students. But there is nothing in her record about fighting discrimination based on race or sex or sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Dhillon has been an ardent defender of Trump and represented him in some of his legal cases. Some of her other high-profile cases include that of California teen Chloe Cole, a right-winger who has emerged as a face of the “detransition” movement, and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers,” Trump said in a statement.

Dhillon declined to speak for this article when reached by phone Tuesday.

Priorities in the Justice Department change under every administration, but Dhillon running the department’s Civil Rights Division would mark a particularly strong contrast to the Biden era.

“This is one of those situations where elections really matter: It’s not just the attorney general, it’s all of these other high-powered positions within the Department of Justice that really set the policy. Because when it comes to laws, the story doesn’t begin and end with passing a law — it’s about which laws to bring suits under, it’s about which laws you’re going to make a priority to enforce,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.

Levinson said that, for example, Americans would probably see fewer suits brought under the Voting Rights Act in a Dhillon-run civil rights office.

“There’s nothing meek or mild or moderate about Harmeet Dhillon,” said Jon Fleischman, a Republican campaign strategist and former executive director of the California GOP who praised the appointment. “The same street fighter that wanted to be the chairman of Republicans in ultra-liberal San Francisco is going to take on the liberal establishment of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department.”

Dhillon was born in India and raised in rural Northern California. Her ascent in Republican Party politics began in San Francisco, where she has long lived and first served as chair of the local chapter of the GOP. She later rose to the No. 2 position in the state party and still represents California on the Republican National Committee.

She also founded the nonprofit Center for American Liberty in 2018, which advocates “against anti-free speech and anti-civil liberties trends,” according to the organization’s website.

Some civil rights advocates sharply criticized Trump’s choice.

“It’s petrifying. She is about as extreme a choice as you could have for this role,” said Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles), an attorney with a long background in environmental law and LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy. “Having her in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is just astonishing, given her long history of opposition to everything that the division is charged with protecting.”

In the past, Dhillon has also taken flak from conservative activists because she donated to Vice President Kamala Harris in a San Francisco district attorney race and once served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Bay Area chapter. Dhillon has said that Harris was the more conservative of the candidates in the district attorney’s race and that she got involved in the ACLU after some Sikhs faced abuse in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she was physically accosted on Capitol grounds Tuesday night, and the suspect has since been arrested.

The U.S. Capitol Police said that just before 6 p.m. the office of a member of Congress, later identified as Mace, reported an incident in the Rayburn House Office Building.

House division officers and agents with the Threat Assessment Section of the police department tracked down the suspect, identified as 33-year-old James McIntyre of Illinois.

NANCY MACE’S EFFORT TO BAN TRANSGENDER DELAWARE DEMOCRAT FROM CAPITOL WOMEN’S RESTROOMS GAINS SUPPORT

Police interviewed McIntyre and ultimately arrested him on the grounds of assaulting a government official.

“I was physically accosted tonight on Capitol grounds over my fight to protect women. Capitol police have arrested him,” Mace said in a post on X. “All the violence and threats keep proving our point. Women deserve to be safe. Your threats will not stop my fight for women!”

Mace has been vocal about her opposition to transgender individuals using bathrooms not assigned to their biological gender.

MACE FACES BACKLASH OVER EFFORT TO BAN TRANSGENDER MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM WOMEN’S BATHROOMS

 A transgender rights supporter takes part in a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court. (Getty Images/File)

She led the charge against allowing Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, to use the women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill. McBride is a biological man who identifies and presents as a woman.

Mace said last month she was receiving death threats, adding that she was being “unfairly targeted.”

Mace also drafted resolution H.R. 1579, which would prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.

Mace’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

Kimberly Guilfoyle has been nominated to serve as United States ambassador to Greece, President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday.

Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host now deeply enmeshed in the broader Trump orbit, was married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco. The former prosecutor announced her engagement to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. in 2022, though questions about the couple’s current relationship status dogged tabloid headlines on Tuesday.

Guilfoyle was a prominent surrogate for Trump during the 2024 campaign.

“For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website, praising her “extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics” and her “sharp intellect.”

The post, which requires Senate confirmation, is currently held by Biden appointee George Tsunis.

Guilfoyle said Tuesday on X that it “was the democratic values born in Greece that helped shape the founding of America,” adding that she looked forward “to delivering on the Trump agenda, supporting our Greek allies, and ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity.”

She also once worked in the San Francisco district attorney’s office with future Vice President Kamala Harris, and the rumored frosty relationship between the ambitious up-and-comers was the topic of San Francisco gossip early in their careers.

Guilfoyle and Newsom — who famously posed together on a rug in a glamorous Harper’s Bazaar profile that declared them “the New Kennedys” — divorced in 2006, the same year she joined Fox News.

The former first lady of San Francisco portrayed the city in dystopian terms during the 2020 Republican National Convention.