Harmeet K. Dhillon

Beyond the conservative causes she champions, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the founder of Dhillon Law Group Inc., would like to be known as a civil rights lawyer, a business litigator and an enforcer of workers' rights.

"I've always done work for the victims of domestic violence and for religious liberty plaintiffs," she said in mid-April, a day after she'd made another appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program. "I was on Tucker to oppose the U.S. government's violation of the rights of journalists."

On the show, she objected to how the Department of Justice allegedly spied on Project Veritas by subpoenaing emails related to President Joseph R. Biden's daughter's diaries, a practice she said "weaponized" the DoJ.

After 9/11, Dhillon pointed out, she became a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union's Northern California chapter to combat discrimination against Sikh Americans and other South Asians.

Her firm has expanded to 17 lawyers and is about to add another, she said. "We're very busy, and we're selective about the cases we handle."

Dhillon is currently defending Donald Trump Jr. and former White House aide Dan Scavino in a suit by retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. It accuses a group of defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, of conspiring to intimidate Vindman into not testifying at President Trump's first impeachment. Vindman v. Trump, 1:22-cv-00257 (D. Columbia, filed Feb. 2, 2022).

She noted that the complaint was filed by, among others, lawyers at the distinctly left-leaning Altshuler Berzon LLP, whose firm occupies the same San Francisco building as hers. "We nod to one another in the elevator and maintain cordial relations," Dhillon said. "San Francisco lawyers are chill."

Dhillon and colleagues reacted quickly this year to sue San Jose over a new city ordinance, adopted in January, that requires gun owners to purchase liability insurance and pay an annual fee to own firearms. National Association for Gun Rights Inc. v. City of San Jose, 5:22-cv-00501 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 25, 2022).

The complaint opens by quoting Justice John Marshall: "That the power to tax involves the power to destroy; that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create..."

Said Dhillon, "This is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment and Supreme Court precedent. The government can't tax your right to bear arms."

Dhillon noted that she's busy opposing may of the voter rights suits filed nationally by Democratic Party election lawyer Marc E. Elias. "This is critical for the midterms and 2024," she said. "There is huge demand for this work, it's the largest growth are for my firm."

- John Roemer