In Louisville the Biden Department of Justice seeks to engineer a consent decree controlling the police department before January 20, just as it seeks to do in Minneapolis. The related Department of Justice press release is posted here. The case is pending in United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky before Judge Benjamin Beaton.
In the Louisville case, however, the local police union (River City FOP) has intervened in the case and the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) has appeared as amicus curiae and filed an expert declaration in conjunction with the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project opposing the consent decree.
We could use their help in the case pending here before Judge Paul Magnuson. LELDF president Jason Johnson’s Wall Street Journal column decried the Minneapolis consent decree when it was announced in 2023.
Judge Beaton held a status hearing on the Louisville consent decree yesterday. He expressed skepticism about its wisdom. See the good local coverage of the hearing here and here.
David Nakamura’s Washington Post story reports that Judge Beaton questioned the timing:
Beaton, of the Western District of Kentucky, also asked attorneys why the proposed consent agreement was completed and submitted to the court last month. The timing could appear to be a rushed attempt to lock in the agreement ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, he said.
Trump has pledged to reverse the Biden administration’s broad intervention into local and state police departments. Criminal justice experts have said a legally binding consent decree could make it more difficult for Trump to change course.
“You’re going to have a new boss in seven days. Why are we racing to do this?” Beaton asked Paul Killebrew, deputy chief of the special litigation section in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “I’m really concerned about … racing to rubber-stamp a 240-page consent decree. We’re really in a difficult position now.”
I seriously doubt the honesty of the attorneys who denied the judge’s suspicion:
Killebrew disputed the suggestion that the Biden administration was racing against Trump’s inauguration, saying negotiations between the Justice Department and the city took nine months to complete.
“When you’re dealing with the city council, negotiations end when everyone has exhausted all their leverage — that’s what happened here,” Killebrew said.
He acknowledged Trump’s impending presidency but said, “My perception is that we neither extended nor hurried the negotiations because of these events.”
An attorney representing Louisville also told Beaton that the timing was not related to Trump.
Well, Judge Beaton, right you are. In my judgment Killebrew and the Louisville attorney have served you an obvious falsehood.
We can be of assistance. If you have any doubt about it, see the press conference called by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke in Minneapolis last week that is posted here. The timing is all about Trump. It couldn’t be more obvious.
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