In 2018, during his first campaign for attorney general, William Tong distinguished himself with a laudable commitment to establish a proactive civil rights division in the office — a unit like those in the U.S. Department of Justice and in attorney generals’ offices in New York, Massachusetts and many other states.

The idea was that our state’s attorney general should be as engaged in the investigation and, where warranted, affirmative litigation of civil rights claims as it has been historically in consumer and environmental protection matters. True to his word, Attorney General Tong pursued authorizing legislation starting his first year in office, finally securing legislative approval in 2021. As he begins his second term in office, we offer a few thoughts as to how he might deploy these important new powers.