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Civil Rights

Overview

The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO), in coordination with the Department of Justice, enforces federal civil rights laws throughout the Central District of Illinois. These laws prohibit discrimination, protect constitutional rights, and ensure equal opportunity for all.

The USAO’s Civil Rights Unit and Civil Division enforce civil federal civil rights statutes, such as the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, laws that ensure constitutional policing practices, laws that protect voting rights, and antidiscrimination laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), disability, religion, familial status, national origin, military service, and citizenship status. For more information regarding the Department of Justice’s civil rights enforcement efforts, please visit the homepage for the Civil Rights Division.

The USAO’s Criminal Division works with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to enforce laws pertaining to criminal civil rights matters, including hate crimes, human trafficking and law enforcement or government misconduct. To report such a crime, please contact the FBI.

Report a Civil Rights Violation

This office welcomes information from the public that brings to our attention possible violations of our nation’s civil rights laws.

To report a civil rights violation, you may:

  • File a complaint directly with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois. Please complete our civil rights complaint form, email us, or call us at: (888)803-6995.  

While the scope of our civil rights practice is broad, the authority of the Department of Justice to investigate and seek relief for individual complaining parties for alleged civil rights violations is limited. We may investigate and seek to remedy alleged discriminatory conduct only where and in the manner specifically authorized by law. In some instances, this means that we can only investigate and seek to remedy patterns of unlawful discriminatory conduct, not individual incidents. This office will review every complaint and, where appropriate, pursue the matter or refer it to another agency or entity.

Contact

The District’s main office is located in Springfield, Illinois with branch offices in Urbana, Peoria, and Moline.

Civil Rights Hotline: (888)803-6995

Email: USAILC.Civil.Rights@usdoj.gov

Mailing Address:
United States Attorney’s Office
Central District of Illinois
Attn: Civil Rights Unit
318 South 6th Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701