The St. Louis County NAACP is suing the U.S. attorney general and the Department of Justice for shutting down the Community Relations Service office, which is in the department's Civil Rights Division.
The Ethical Society of Police, Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri, Two Wrasslin’ Cats Accord, Out Accountability Project, Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups and Education, NAACP State Conference Colorado-Montana-Wyoming, Peacemakers Lodge, Pikes Peak Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1, Wellspring Health Access and the Haitian Community Help & Support Center are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The organizations are seeking to protect the national conflict mediation agency, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, from being eliminated without congressional approval.
“The reason behind it was to de-escalate violence towards civil rights activists, such as Martin Luther King, John Lewis and others, and it is a vital negotiating tool that we use to bring justice in civil rights violations,” said John Bowman, president of the St. Louis County NAACP.
Civic organizations from around the country claim in the lawsuit that the Trump administration has expressed hostility toward the Community Relations Service. The lawsuit states that the Justice Department has said in writing that the “CRS mission does not comport with Attorney General and Administration law enforcement and litigating priorities.” Instead of working with lawmakers to amend the law, it dismantled it, and plaintiffs say this is illegal because the Constitution gives Congress the ability to create or eliminate agencies, and the dismantling of the service violates the Civil Rights Act.
The Community Relations Service office provided mediation to help prevent violence and resolve tension related to race, ethnicity and civil rights. Organizations have utilized these services nationwide, including in St. Louis County.
“The NAACP St Louis County (was) in the middle of having CRS mitigate a case where three white construction workers attacked an off-duty Black police officer prior to the new administration, two years ago,” Bowman said. “We had just come to an agreement with St Louis County Police Department, and we were on the verge of signing off on the contract, when all of a sudden, the Department of Justice shut down the division of Civil Rights, leaving us with unfinished work defending another dispute.”
Bowman said this is just one example of how the Justice Department is limiting what the NAACP and other organizations can do to help people in their fight for civil rights.
The civic organizations filed the lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
They say the Justice Department did not reach out to any agencies or stakeholders who use the civil rights services prior to shutting them down. Between March and September 2025, the Community Relations Service began to withdraw assistance to communities and organizations and denied new requests for assistance as directed by the Justice Department. The agency reduced its workforce in late September from 15 to one in an effort to dissolve it.
Bowman said this type of legal action is not new for the NAACP, and leaders are aware of the battle that comes with suing the Justice Department.
“After Reconstruction, they used Plessy v. Ferguson to roll back the clock, and it seems to be a similar playbook this administration is trying to use,” he said. “We are going to use our knowledge of the law and the passion and conviction that Thurgood Marshall used.”
