The Justice Department has ordered an immediate halt to all new civil rights cases or investigations — and signaled that it might back out of Biden-era agreements with police departments that engaged in discrimination or violence, according to two internal memos sent to staff on Wednesday.
The actions, while expected, represent an abrupt about-face for a department that had for the past four years aggressively investigated high-profile instances of violence and systemic discrimination in local law enforcement and government agencies.
The first of two short memos sent by Chad Mizelle, the chief of staff at the department, ordered a “litigation freeze” at the department’s Civil Rights Division to decide whether Trump appointees want “to initiate any new cases,” according to a screenshot of the document viewed by The New York Times.
Mr. Mizelle also barred lawyers working for the division from filing “motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs or statements of interest,” unless they receive the approval of senior Trump appointees. It is the clearest sign yet that the hard-line conservatives taking over the department intend to swiftly sweep away the previous administration’s liberal agenda.
Perhaps more significant, a second memo ordered a similar freeze on department activity involving so-called consent decrees — agreements hashed out with local governments intended to address flawed police practices, or bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and disabilities.
“The new administration may wish to reconsider settlements and consent decrees negotiated and approved during the prior administration,” wrote Mr. Mizelle, an ally of Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top policy adviser.
The order could scuttle agreements recently reached with Louisville, Ky., after the police killing of Breonna Taylor, and with Minneapolis in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, according to former administration officials. Neither has received final approval by a federal judge. Other voluntary agreements could also be in jeopardy, they said.
Mr. Trump, who has moved quickly to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs, accused the Justice Department under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of hampering the police, even though nearly all of the law enforcement agencies investigated have admitted fault and many have embraced reforms.
In 2020, during his first term, Mr. Trump signed an executive order requiring police departments to ban chokeholds after Mr. Floyd died while being choked.
The president has selected Harmeet K. Dhillon, a conservative lawyer from California, to run the Civil Rights Division, one of the most important, and politically polarizing, units in the department. Ms. Dhillon, who will be responsible for voting rights cases if confirmed by the Senate, was a top figure in the state Republican Party, where she supported Mr. Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.
