Trump's new Justice Department leadership orders a freeze on civil rights cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new Justice Department leadership has put a freeze on civil rights litigation and suggested it may reconsider police reform agreements negotiated by the Biden administration, according to two memos obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Attorneys in the department's Civil Rights Division were ordered not to file any new complaints, amicus briefs or other certain court papers “until further notice," one of the memos said.

Another memo directed attorneys to notify leadership of any settlements or consent decrees — court-enforceable agreements to reform police agencies — that were finalized by the Biden administration within the last 90 days.

It said the new administration “may wish to reconsider” such agreements, raising the prospect that it may abandon two consent decrees finalized in the final weeks of the Biden administration in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Those agreements, reached after investigations found police engaged in civil rights violations, still need to be approved by a judge. They were among 12 investigations into law enforcement agencies launched by the Civil Rights Division under Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Minneapolis City Council earlier this month approved the agreement to overhaul the city’s police training and use-of-force policies in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

The Justice Department announced last month it had reached the agreement with Louisville to reform the city’s police force after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020 and police treatment of protesters.

The memos, sent by new chief of staff Chad Mizelle, is a sign of major changes expected in the Civil Rights Division under Trump. His pick to lead the division is Harmeet Dhillon, a well-known conservative attorney who last year made an unsuccessful bid for Republican National Committee chair.

The Justice Department under the first Trump administration curtailed the use of consent decrees, and the Republican was expected to again radically reshape the department’s priorities around civil rights.

It's unclear how long the “litigation freeze” may last. The memo said the move was necessary to ensure “that the federal government speaks with one voice in its view of the law and to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate new cases.”