Indianapolis attorney is part of Trump push to change culture on campus

In the middle of the battle between the U.S. Department of Education and some of the nation’s most prominent universities stands a conservative Indianapolis attorney who is determined to root out antisemitism on campuses.

Tom Wheeler II is the acting general counsel at an agency that President Donald Trump is actively working to dismantle. But in the meantime, Wheeler is seeking to make the most of what he acknowledges is a temporary gig.

On leave from Bose McKinney & Evans LLP, Wheeler is part of the Trump administration’s inter-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, a group the Justice Department said in February was created to stop the harassment of Jewish students in schools and on college campuses.

Its initial targets have been universities where massive pro-Palestinian protests have led to concerns about Jewish students’ ability to safely attend classes and where—in the view of many Republicans—the schools’ administrations didn’t do enough to shut down antisemitic behavior.

It’s an issue Wheeler is passionate about. His best childhood friend was Jewish, and the two spent much of their time at the Jewish Community Center in Indianapolis playing soccer, Wheeler said. Then during the first Trump administration, Wheeler became the leader of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during a time when more than 100 bomb threats were made against Jewish community centers across the country.

The incidents “impacted every Jewish individual in the United States,” Wheeler told The Indiana Lawyer at the time. “You have to take every threat seriously.”

The same is true now, he says, about the safety of Jewish students at universities. Success in this role, he said, is ensuring that schools “respect first amendment rights while protecting students from harassment.”

And the task force is using the opening created by concerns about the safety of Jewish students on campus to push a larger agenda that involves issues around female and transgender athletes, political views on campus, standards for admissions and hiring, and curricular programs like Middle Eastern studies.

Last month, under pressure from the task force and facing a $400 million cut in federal funding, Columbia University agreed to overhaul its protest policies, security practices and Middle Eastern studies department.

The group has sought similar concessions from Harvard University, where the Trump administration says so-called woke ideologies have created a campus that is hostile to conservative thought. But Harvard has declined to capitulate to the group’s demands, despite the Trump administration’s move to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding. Now, Harvard is suing the federal government.

In all, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has sent letters to 60 colleges, including Indiana University, warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin. The Department of Education has previously determined the act applies to shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics that include religious groups such as Hindus, Jews and Muslims.

“It’s illegal. It just is,” Wheeler told IBJ. “And all of [the schools’] grants, their funds, their contracts, are conditioned on compliance with Title VI. … If you take the money, the conditions come with it. That’s the deal.”

‘Acting’ only

Despite his key role in one of Trump’s biggest priority actions, Wheeler acknowledges he’s not long for the job. In fact, he arranged it that way.

His appointment as acting general counsel means he didn’t need Senate confirmation, which allowed him to move into the job and get started right away.

“I have no interest in going through” the confirmation process, he told IBJ. The investigation involved and the wait for Senate action can takes months, even years, he said. And during that time, a nominee has to avoid all conflicts of interest, which is tough for a lawyer. “You have to sit there and not do anything,” he said.

Plus, Wheeler said, his wife—a physician specializing in pediatrics—has no interest in having him in Washington full time.

President Trump has nominated Jennifer Mascott, associate professor of law at Catholic University of America, to fill Wheeler’s general counsel position. But with more than 1,300 positions across the federal government that require Senate confirmation, it’s not clear when she might take the job.

Wheeler also served in an acting position when he worked in the Justice Department during Trump’s first term. In that role, he oversaw a number of divisions, including appellate, criminal, disability rights, education, employment, and civil enforcement, immigrant and employee rights and voting.

He later served as senior counsel to the secretary of education, a contract position focusing on COVID-19 issues, which included working with other agencies on the safe reopening of schools. And he served as a senior advisor to the White House Federal Commission on School Safety, which was created to respond to several high-profile deadly school shootings.

John Hammond, an Indianapolis attorney who served 12 years on the Republican National Committee and is now its general counsel, said he’s not surprised the Trump administration has turned to Wheeler for help more than once.

“He’s direct and a very honest, straight shooter in a process where too many people are ambiguous and obfuscate on the issues,” Hammond said. “Inside a team approach to an administration, that’s valued and admired. I think that’s why he’s in demand because he’s mission driven in the way he pursues his duties.”

Before going to Washington, Wheeler served as counsel to then-Gov. Mike Pence. He’s a member of the White River State Park Commission, where he serves with Lou Gerig, who has long been active in Republican politics. He said Wheeler is “passionate about education and always has been.”

But Gerig said what also makes Wheeler an asset is that “he works hard, works long hours, asks probing questions and always has good ideas.”

Wheeler served on the Boone County Council and chaired the Indiana Election Commission as well as the Indiana Recount Commission when bipartisan group considered the challenge to then-Secretary of State Charlie White’s election.

Wheeler is also vice chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association and a member of The Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians who are concerned about what they see as a liberal ideology that has taken over law schools.

“His credentials in the conservative moment are without question, which is rooted in a lot of his Federalist Society work and principals,” Hammond said.

Second time around

For now, Wheeler is splitting his time between his home in Zionsville and an apartment near the Justice Department and National Archives. He spends most of his week in D.C. but comes home most weekends, working out of his Bose McKinney & Evans office in Salesforce Tower.

He said Washington, D.C., is in many ways “a really small town” that is made even smaller when, during Trump’s first term, so many Hoosiers were part of the administration. And now, as many first-term Trump officials return for the second term, they’re more familiar with the city, the politics and the processes.

“Last time, when we went in, we didn’t know what we were doing,” Wheeler said.

But today, the Trump administration is full of people who previously served in senior positions and know how to get things done, he said.

“The learning curve was either non-existent or was very small this time versus last time,” he said. “That’s the biggest difference—just the boots on [the ground], which is helpful given the speed with which the president has chosen to move this time.”

That’s certainly been the case at the Department of Education. Trump last month signed an executive order that says the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon on March 11 announced a roughly 50% cut in the department’s workforce, moving it from about 4,100 workers to about 2,100.

Wheeler said he’s confident that the Department of Education can fulfill its statutory duties even with the smaller staff.

“There is a lot of redundancy in the federal government,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt.”