Carrie Johnson

The scholarship program, sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, intends to support the next generation of civil rights advocates working in the South.

The Justice Department has opened more than 275 investigations into the Capitol riot. Authorities say they are turning to the most serious crimes including assaults on law enforcement.

They say new police and surveillance powers could, if history is a guide, be used against Blacks and other people of color in the justice system, not the white rioters who stormed the Capitol.

Officials say they're weeks away from a full understanding of how rioters may have planned to storm the U.S. Capitol. Dozens of people have been arrested, but the security threat may be far from over.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Judge Merrick Garland to become attorney general in the new administration, NPR has learned.

The federal appeals judge was spurned when Democrats supported him as a Supreme Court justice. Now the incoming Biden administration wants him to lead what it calls reform at the Justice Department.

Zachary Terwilliger told NPR he isn't sure whether the Justice Department will continue trying to extradite after a defeat in court. Terwilliger, meanwhile, is set to hang up his U.S. flag pin.

Executions and new death sentences in the U.S. reached historic lows, with only 17 people executed this year. The pandemic and longer-term trends are moving away from capital punishment, experts say.

"Our job, we know, has never been more important, more significant, or more challenging than it is right now," says Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Trump granted clemency to 20 people. That includes three former GOP congressmen, two people prosecuted in the Russia probe and four contractors involved in a deadly incident in Iraq.

Justice Department whistleblowers are calling on federal watchdogs and members of Congress to investigate what they call illegal and abusive government directives that chill diversity speech.

The new charges follow decades of work by Justice Department leaders aimed at investigating and prosecuting those responsible for 270 deaths.

Jeffrey Rosen will serve as the acting attorney general for the last few weeks of the Trump presidency. NPR takes a look at Rosen's background and the pressures he may face.

Jeffrey Rosen will lead the Justice Department for the final weeks of the Trump presidency as the White House presses officials to do more to investigate politically sensitive cases.

Attorney General William Barr will be leaving the Justice Department before Christmas. President Trump tweeted that Barr will be replaced by the Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

Several well-known legal and national security insiders are in the mix as President-elect Joe Biden and his advisers assess how to implement what they call reforms at the Justice Department.

Austin will bring to the Pentagon decades of military experience. He would be the first African American to lead the department.

Critics say President Trump constrained the Civil Rights Division from being as effective as it should. Business could look very different under the new incoming administration.

Former leaders in the Justice Department's civil rights division say the Biden team will have a heavy lift on its hands.

The Justice Department typically does not put people to death while a new administration is waiting to take power, but Attorney General William Barr plans more executions before Inauguration Day.