Dear Mr. Mizelle

The AP picks up the thread of the story to which I have been seeking to draw the attention of the incoming Trump administration. Trump Department of Justice chief of staff Chad Mizelle may have gotten word:

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.

Dear Mr. Mizelle: Please take notice of the Minneapolis and Louisville cases and do not lollygag while the motions for approval in these cases remain pending. Order the attorneys under your authority to speak up and withdraw the motions before the courts take action. The time it is today.

As we and others have argued, the Minneapolis case is farcical. The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund has appeared as an amicus in the Louisville case to urge Judge Beaton not to play along in the case before him. LELDF president Jason Johnson explains in this RealClearPolicy column the damage these consent decrees do.

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