New Trump Justice Department leadership orders freeze on civil rights cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new Justice Department leadership has frozen civil rights dispute and suggested he might reconsider police reform deals negotiated by the Biden administration, according to two memos obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Attorneys in the department’s Civil Rights Division have been ordered not to file new complaints, amicus briefs or other court documents “until further notice,” one of the memos says.

Another memo asked attorneys to notify leaders of any settlements or consent decrees — enforceable agreements to reform policing — that had been finalized by the Biden administration in the past 90 days.

He said the new administration “may wish to reconsider” such agreements, raising the possibility of abandoning two consent decrees finalized in the final weeks of the Biden administration in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota .

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

The Minneapolis City Council earlier this month approved the agreement to revise the city’s police training and use of force policies following the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

The Ministry of Justice announced last month he had reached an agreement with Louisville to reform the city’s police force after an investigation triggered by the Fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020 and the police treatment of demonstrators.

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

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

It is unclear how long the “litigation freeze” will last. The memo says the move is necessary to ensure “that the federal government speaks with one voice regarding its view of the law and to ensure that individuals appointed or designated by the President have the opportunity to decide whether to ‘initiate further proceedings’.