The issue focused on an update to the law that goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, that says "as a civil rights law, it is the federal government's responsibility to protect the rights of all people, including people of color, in the federal government."

The law was passed in 2011 to protect people of color from federal police officers who make racial or ethnic profiling.

The president's civil rights enforcement policy was set in motion in 2014, when he signed the Justice Department's civil rights