Donald Trump has tapped lawyer John Gore, who defended the University of North Carolina system in a legal challenge over the state’s anti-LGBT law, to be the deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Gore is a partner at Jones Day, the Trump campaign’s law firm. Jones Day announced that Gore and several other lawyers with the firm will be joining the Trump administration.
If Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the Senate as attorney general, he would oversee Gore.
Gore defended the University of North Carolina system in a lawsuit challenging the state’s HB2 law, which barred transgender people from using the public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Gore withdrew as counsel on the case last week.
Gore graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2005 and now works out of the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day. At Jones Day, Gore has recently worked on antitrust cases involving the health care industry as well as redistricting cases. Gore defended the former Republican majority leader of the New York state Senate in a redistricting case in 2011 and 2012. He also helped Republicans in Florida gain approval of redistricting plans in 2012.
Correction: This article originally misstated that Gore will need Senate confirmation. The Senate does not need to confirm deputy assistant attorney general positions. We regret the error.
