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ACLU lawyer given Justice Dept. civil rights post

This undated handout photo provided by the Justice Department shows Vanita Gupta. An American Civil Liberties Union attorney was named Wednesday as the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Gupta, who has served for the past four years as deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, starts at the Justice Department next week. She previously worked as a lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. (AP Photo/Justice Department)
This undated handout photo provided by the Justice Department shows Vanita Gupta. An American Civil Liberties Union attorney was named Wednesday as the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Gupta, who has served for the past four years as deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, starts at the Justice Department next week. She previously worked as a lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. (AP Photo/Justice Department) This undated handout photo provided by the Justice Department shows Vanita Gupta. An American Civil Liberties Union attorney was named Wednesday as the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Gupta, who has served for the past four years as deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, starts at the Justice Department next week. She previously worked as a lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. (AP Photo/Justice Department)

By Associated Press 2 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – An American Civil Liberties Union attorney was named Wednesday as the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Vanita Gupta, who has served for the past four years as deputy legal director of the ACLU and director of its Center for Justice, starts at the Justice Department next week. She previously worked as a lawyer at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

A person familiar with the process said President Barack Obama plans to nominate Gupta to serve in the job permanently. The person was not authorized to discuss the selection process by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“Even as she has done trailblazing work as a civil rights lawyer, Vanita is also known as a unifier and consensus builder. She has a knack for bridging differences and building coalitions to drive progress,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

Gupta has been involved in representing drug prisoners in Texas who were ultimately pardoned and immigrant children detained at a privately run prison, and has overseen a project to end the segregation of HIV-infected prison inmates.

She has also been outspoken on matters of drug and sentencing policy, issues that Holder has made cornerstones of his agenda as attorney general.

In a New York Times opinion piece last year, she called for reducing the nation’s prison population by ending mandatory-minimum sentences, rescinding “three-strikes” laws and decriminalizing marijuana.

“The buildup of our prison-industrial complex was a bipartisan process that unfolded over decades, and digging ourselves out of this hole will require unlikely political alliances,” she wrote.

A prior nominee, Debo Adegbile, failed to win Senate confirmation last March amid opposition over his legal work at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer.

An aide to Holder, Molly Moran, has served in the position since then in an interim capacity. Moran will become principal deputy associate attorney general.

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP