Harmeet Dhillon’s Civil Rights Revolution. Why Hamas Doesn’t Want Peace. Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, October 16. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: The new American Luddites. How MAGA warmed to weed. The latest episode of Old School, our new podcast on literature. And more.

But first: Civil rights at the Department of Justice gets a new interpretation.

Left and right don’t agree on much these days, but here’s a rare point of consensus in Washington, D.C. today: Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s powerful Civil Rights Division, is a busy woman. Ask whether that’s a good thing, however, and you will get very different replies.

Since Dhillon, 56, was sworn in this April, she has launched litigation on a range of hot-button issues, from biological men in women’s sports to antisemitism on college campuses. In these cases, Dhillon is performing a kind of legal judo: using the power of the civil rights division for conservative ends. That puts her in the vanguard of the Trump administration’s anti-woke revolution, and it’s why we were so eager for Free Press writer Eli Lake to profile her.

Eli talks to Dhillon about her goal to “eradicate affirmative action and DEI every place that the federal government touches it,” and reports on how this polarizing mission is raising eyebrows in the capital.

Read his profile on the soft-spoken but defiant lawyer, who has two mugs on her desk: one that says “The Tears of My Enemy,” and the other emblazoned with the acronym “FAFO.”

—Oliver Wiseman

This month, we’re toasting to America’s technological revolution for America at 250, our year-long celebration of America’s milestone birthday. Yesterday, Katherine Boyle wrote about America’s other Second Amendment, and we polled our readers on the greatest American invention. (If you haven’t made your pick yet, go vote!)

Today, we bring you two more stories on this theme. In the first, Noah Smith digs into history and data to explain how political divisions and fractured trust in institutions have stoked a strong anti-technology backlash. Read Noah on the rise of the new American Luddites.

Here’s an innovation it’s fair to say most of us take for granted: the shipping container. It’s not as exciting as the space shuttle or the iPhone, but without it, American life would look very different. Read historian Marc Levinson on a genius trucker from North Carolina—and the big metal box that made the modern world possible.

On Old School: Mike Israetel, Fitness Expert and Author

Old School is The Free Press’s new podcast about great books, and how reading them makes for stronger, better men. In the latest episode, host Shilo Brooks sits down with Mike Israetel, the world-renowned fitness expert and author. The book under discussion is Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate—the 2002 bestseller that convinced Israetel to accept the limits of human nature. Listen to their conversation for a discussion of the groundbreaking book, as well as Israetel’s hard-won lessons on training, discipline, and self-image from his time as a professional bodybuilder.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for a case challenging a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 yesterday. (Win McNamee via Getty Images)

• The Supreme Court signaled that it might prohibit states from using race as a factor when creating election districts. The justices heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that challenges a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Justice Brett Kavanaugh questioned whether “race-based remedies” are still needed. Republicans could redraw as many as 19 Democratic districts in red states if the law is struck down, according to two Democrat-aligned voting rights groups.

• The Trump administration has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to covertly carry out lethal operations in Venezuela, including against Nicolás Maduro’s regime. “I authorized it for two reasons: Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States,” Trump said at a press conference Wednesday. “The other thing is drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.” American forces have killed 27 people in what Trump called “narcoterrorist” boats off the Venezuelan coast.

• Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, declined to say in a Fox News interview whether Hamas should give up control of Gaza. Mamdani also declined to give President Trump credit for the ceasefire in Gaza. The front-runner in the race for Gracie Mansion apologized for his past comments denigrating the New York Police Department.

• In Massachusetts, Representative Seth Moulton launched a Democratic primary challenge against Senator Ed Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly five decades. “I just don’t believe Senator Markey should be running for another six-year term at 80 years old,” Moulton, 46, said in his campaign announcement video.

• Katie Porter, the Democratic front-runner for California governor and a former House member, said she “could have handled things better” in viral videos where she cursed at staffers and tried to storm out of an interview. “I think I’m known as someone who’s able to handle tough questions,” she said in an interview with Inside California Politics.

• The Trump administration admitted that it accidentally laid off nearly twice as many Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees as planned—1,760 instead of 982—because of “data discrepancies and processing errors.” The blunder is part of a wider pattern of fuzzy layoff math amid shutdown-related mass firings.

• Fifteen Democratic governors—including those in New York, California, and North Carolina—formed a joint public-health alliance to counter federal cuts and vaccine policy shifts under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The group will collaborate on pandemic preparedness, track infectious diseases, write public-health guidelines, share expertise on preventive care, and buy vaccines and supplies in bulk.

• As clashes escalate between immigration agents and residents of cities across the U.S., Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency. The move usually is a response to natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes. County officials said the disaster declaration would help steer resources to people affected by immigration raids and arrests.

We have a packed season of conversations, debates, and live events. Here’s what’s coming up:

• Reclaiming Childhood in an Online World with Jonathan Haidt and Bari Weiss
  New York, NY • October 22, 7 p.m. • 🎟️ Tickets on sale here

• Would America Be Safer Without the Second Amendment? Featuring Alan Dershowitz, Dana Loesch, and Bari Weiss
  Chicago • November 5, 7 p.m. • 🎟️ Tickets on sale here

Full Schedule

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