CRS Restoration Project

What is the Community Relations Service?

The Community Relations Service is the only federal agency created by Congress to resolve conflicts and restore peaceful relations in American communities struggling with civil rights conflicts and hate crimes.

Because CRS, standing as a separate agency in the U.S. Department of Justice, has provided neutral, impartial mediation service to America’s most divisive and challenging issues of our time, CRS has rightly been known as “America’s Peacemaker.”

CRS in Crisis

On October 31, 2025, the Justice Department unlawfully “dissolved” CRS after systematically dismantling the agency throughout 2025. Abolishing CRS without Congressional action is illegal. Yet, DOJ closed CRS and terminated all CRS employees except one.

On November 12, Congress passed a new law providing continued funding for CRS at the October 2023 level and requiring DOJ to reinstate terminated employees. Still, in defiance of Congress, DOJ is refusing to restore CRS and return employees to CRS.

Litigation to Preserve and Restore CRS

Civil rights groups across the nation harmed by abrupt withdrawal of CRS’s statutorily required services in 2025 have filed a federal lawsuit to save CRS.

The lawsuit details DOJ’s unconstitutional and illegal actions and explains the tremendous harm that the eradication of CRS has caused in American communities suffering from civil rights conflicts and violent hate crimes.

Why This Matters

For six decades, CRS has been the country’s facilitator of peace during some of the most turbulent moments in American life.

Losing CRS is already leaving a significant gap in the nation’s ability to respond to violent conflicts before they escalate. The future cost of scrapping CRS could be astronomical — in lost lives, damaged properties, wasted taxpayer dollars, fractured communities, and increased police-community, cross-racial, inter-religious, gender-based, and anti-disability conflicts and hate crimes.