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 an 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.
President Trump wasted no time signing a slew of executive orders on Day 1, including those that:
- Direct DOJ not to enforce TikTok “divest-or-ban” law for 75 days
- Halt 78 Biden-era executive actions
- Withdraw from the Paris climate accord
- End all federal cases and investigations of any Trump supporters
- Revoke protections for transgender troops
- Pardon about 1,500 people criminally charged in the Jan. 6 attack, while commuting the sentences for six
- Overhaul the refugee admission program to better align with American principles and interests
- Declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border
- Designate drug cartels and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations
- Reverse several immigration orders from the Biden administration, including one that narrows deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats or were stopped at the border
- Rescind a policy created by the Biden administration that sought to guide the development of AI to prevent misuse
- Rescind a Biden-era policy that allowed federal agencies to take certain initiatives to boost voter registration
- Rescind the 2021 Title IX order, which bans discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation in education programs that get federal funding
- Revoke Biden’s recent removal of Cuba from US state sponsors of terrorism list
- Order federal employees back to work in office five days a week
- Order a federal hiring freeze, including exceptions for posts related to national security and public safety and the military
- Direct every governmental department and agency to address the cost-of-living crisis
- Restore freedom of speech and prevent censorship of free speech
- End the “weaponization of government against the political adversaries of the previous administration”
- Impose 25% tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada as of Feb. 1
- Reverse Biden sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank
- Reverse Biden order requiring 50% of new cars sold in 2030 be EVs
- Proclaim that there are two biological sexes: male and female
- End diversity, equity and inclusion programs within federal agencies
- Establish Department of Government Efficiency
- Institute enhanced screening for visa applicants from certain high-risk nations
- Reopen Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration
- Order attorney general, secretary of state and secretary of homeland security to “take all appropriate action to prioritize” prosecution of illegal aliens who commit crimes
- Withdraw US from Global Minimum Tax agreement
- Institute a 90-day pause in the issuance of US foreign aid
- Order the attorney general to pursue the death penalty for killing of a law enforcement officer or any capital crime committed by an illegal immigrant
- Order the secretaries of commerce and the interior to restart efforts to route water from California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state
- Withdraw the US from the World Health Organization
- Order Treasury Department to explore creation of External Revenue Service
- Revoke security clearances for ex-national security adviser John Bolton and 51 intelligence officials who said Hunter Biden laptop bore “classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation.
- Declare the border crisis an “invasion” and order the attorney general and secretaries of state and homeland security to “take all appropriate action to repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged” in such
- Formally rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and Alaska’s Mt. Denali to “Mt. McKinley”
The memos, sent by new chief of staff Chad Mizelle, are 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.”
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