Justice Department freezes all cases in civil rights division
Demonstrators demand justice for Breonna Taylor as they gather in Jefferson Square Park on March 13, 2021, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
The Justice Department has ordered its civil rights division to halt any ongoing litigation from the Biden administration and not pursue any new cases or settlements, according to a memo sent to the temporary head of the division that was obtained by The Washington Post.
The letter instructs Kathleen Wolfe—designated by the Trump administration as supervisor of the division—to ensure that civil rights attorneys do not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.”
The memo doesn’t state how long the freeze will last, but it essentially shuts down the civil rights division for at least the first weeks of the Trump administration. Trump’s nominee to lead the department, Harmeet Dhillon—a Republican lawyer and activist—is awaiting Senate confirmation.
The memo states that officials are implementing the freeze to be “consistent with the Department’s goal of ensuring 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 any new cases.”
A separate memo sent to Wolfe on Wednesday says the civil rights division must notify the Justice Department’s chief of staff of any consent decrees the division has finalized within the last 90 days.
After the November election, the Justice Department rushed to finalize police reform agreements with multiple jurisdictions, knowing that such agreements could be opposed by Trump appointees.
In December, the department announced a federal oversight agreement with the city of Louisville, where the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor helped spark nationwide justice protests. In early January, the civil rights division reached agreement on a police accountability plan with city leaders in Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd galvanized those protests even further.
Neither agreement has been approved by a judge.
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