The Government Is Making Decisions for You Without You
The tools for public engagement still exist. The law still requires agencies to listen. What’s missing is the support people need to participate in ways that actually make a difference.
For much of my 25-year career at the Department of Justice, I worked inside a system that is supposed to do something very simple: listen to the people it serves.
That system, called rulemaking, is how federal policies become reality and how agencies make laws work in real life. The process is simple: an agency issues notice to the public of the proposed rule; waits during a period while the public can weigh in by submitting comments; and finalizes the rule only after considering the public comments and making any necessary changes.
Federal rules shape how schools discipline students, how banks treat borrowers, how safe the air is to breathe, how hospitals deliver care, and how communities experience fairness, or don’t.
During the 12 years I led the Disability Rights Section in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, the simple but radical mantra of the disability rights movement, “nothing about us without us,” became my north star. It guided me as I led the team that finalized the most innovative and consequential disability rights rule in over a decade: the 2024 rule requiring public entities to make their websites and mobile apps accessible. That rule applies to state unemployment insurance portals, local school district websites, online voter registration, paratransit systems, and more.
And it reflected input from a wide range of stakeholders, including people with disabilities, parents, state and local governments, educational institutions, and advocacy organizations. I remember reading public comments describing how students with disabilities felt frustrated, discouraged, and excluded by inaccessible websites. Those stories made a difference, not just to the rules themselves, but to the people writing them.
Rulemaking is technical, methodical, and often overlooked. But when it functions as designed, it is one of the most democratic parts of our government because it invites all Americans to weigh in before policies are finalized. Your lived experiences can become part of the public record. Agencies are required to respond. And the information you provide can directly shape how laws impact the public.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Lately, the reality feels very different.
In recent months, we’ve seen federal agencies quietly dismantle long-standing civil rights protections through policy changes designed to avoid public attention and provide almost no opportunity for public input.
At the Department of Justice, for example, the administration issued a final rule, without seeking public comment, that removed the disparate-impact standard from its Title VI regulations. In so doing, the rule eliminated a tool that for decades allowed communities to challenge policies that discriminate in effect, even when intent could not be shown.
And yet most people may never hear about these changes until they are already locked in.
That’s not because the public doesn’t care. It’s because the system has become increasingly inaccessible and opaque. Opportunities for meaningful participation are shrinking rapidly, with very little transparency.
When the public is invited in, advocates, families, small business owners, people with disabilities, and community leaders are able to shape the rules that govern their lives. Federal policymakers learn how those rules work at a practical level. And everyone has more faith in federal action because it is grounded in democratic principles and the public’s input.
What we are losing right now isn’t just a process. It’s people’s opportunity to tell their stories and to have those stories matter.
That loss isn’t confined to civil rights. It’s happening in environmental policy, consumer protection, healthcare, and immigration; anywhere that complex federal decisions are made behind closed doors.
At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, core protections are being weakened or rewritten in ways that will directly affect how consumers interact with financial institutions.
And, the Department of Homeland Security is proposing to withdraw a 2022 rule that limited which public benefits could be considered in immigration decisions. Withdrawing the rule will harm noncitizens who rely on essential health and support services.
Meanwhile the public is told, implicitly or explicitly, to trust institutions and decision-makers they rarely get to see.
But here is the part that gives me hope: the system is not broken beyond repair. The tools for public engagement still exist. The law still requires agencies to listen. What’s missing is the support people need to participate in ways that actually make a difference.
Over the past several months, I’ve been working with former DOJ colleagues on a project aimed at building that infrastructure. It’s still taking shape, but the idea is simple: let’s make it easier for everyday people, advocates, and community organizations to understand federal policy decisions and to intervene before those decisions are final.
Not as spectators. As participants.
Justice Connection has created a space where former DOJ colleagues can speak honestly about what is happening inside our institutions. I’m grateful for the opportunity to use this platform to share the beginnings of this work because this project grows out of the same conviction: that democracy doesn’t survive on autopilot. People must insist on being heard.
Federal policy is being written right now that could shape your access to healthcare and education, your ability to breathe clean air or assert your rights, and your financial or workplace security. The impacts of these policies may last for years to come. You deserve a seat at the table.
I’ll share more soon about what I’m building and how people can get involved. For now, this is an invitation to start paying attention to a part of our democracy that our government has been quietly slipping out of public view. Let’s imagine what it would look like to take it back and begin doing so together.
If you’d like to follow along as this work develops, I’d love to stay connected.
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Yes please!