Catherine Elizabeth Lhamon (born August 5, 1971) is an American attorney and government official who is the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education. She previously served in this position from 2013 to 2017. During her tenure, Lhamon instituted changes to Title IX rules that were praised by some feminist and progressive groups,^[1][2] but received criticism across the political spectrum as violations of due process.^[3][4][5][6] She was also deputy chair of the United States Domestic Policy Council for racial justice and equality from January to October 2021, and chaired the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 2016 to 2021.

Lhamon was raised in Palo Alto, California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College and Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.^[7][8]

Lhamon began her career as a law clerk for William Albert Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then joined the Appellate Litigation Program at Georgetown University Law Center.^[9] For ten years, she was an attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. After that, she was with the pro bono law firm Public Counsel.^[9]

In 2013, Lhamon became the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education.^[10][11] During her tenure, that office issued "Dear Colleague" letters and other guidelines to school officials, clarifying that a school's failure to appropriately respond to sexual violence or its mistreatment of transgender students can constitute sex discrimination in violation of Title IX, outlining how schools can ensure that student discipline complies with laws prohibiting race discrimination, and explaining how the use of restraint or seclusion can result in unlawful discrimination against students with disabilities.^[12][13][14] The Title IX guidelines she instituted banned lawyers for the accused from cross-examining witnesses, strongly discouraged the accused from cross-examining witnesses, strongly encouraged schools to allow the complainants not to disclose their identity to the accused, and required schools to use a preponderance of evidence standard (i.e., more likely than not, as opposed to very likely or beyond a reasonable doubt) in evaluating claims.^[15] Some feminist organizations praised the new requirements and criticized the Trump Administration's education secretary Betsy DeVos for reversing them.^[1][16][17] Ms. Magazine hailed "a week of progress for the Obama administration".^[1] But the new regulations were criticized by conservatives, libertarians, and some liberals and feminists as violations of the due process rights of the accused.^{[18][4][5][19]} Feminist author Lara Bazelon wrote that the regulations "gave risk-averse schools incentives to expel the accused without any reliable fact-finding process."^[19] In 2015, 16 University of Pennsylvania professors signed a letter expressing concern about the regulations' fairness.^[20] The regulations were reversed in 2020 by education secretary Betsy DeVos.^[21]

In December 2016 Lhamon was appointed chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.^[22] In 2019, she was appointed California Legal Affairs Secretary by Governor Gavin Newsom.^[8] In 2019, Lhamon was mentioned by liberal group Demand Justice as one of their recommended Supreme Court nominees.^[23]

On May 13, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Lhamon for a second term as assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education.^[24] The nomination was submitted to the Senate on the same day and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The committee deadlocked on an August 3 vote to report the nomination favorably to the Senate. The Senate voted to discharge the nomination from the committee on October 7 by a vote of 50–49. Vice President Kamala Harris cast two tie-breaking votes on October 20 on the Senate's motion to invoke cloture on, as well as to confirm, Lhamon's nomination.^[25]

Lhamon is married to Giev Kashkooli, the political and legislative director of the United Farm Workers union.^[26] They have two children.^[27]