Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would be moving to dismiss two consent decrees in connection with court oversight of law enforcement agencies in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Louisville, Kentucky. These consent decrees aimed to remedy widespread constitutional violations that were uncovered after extensive DOJ investigations following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. DOJ also plans to close investigations of the Louisiana State Police and police departments in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. DOJ had already concluded all of these investigations with findings that each law enforcement agency had engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct.
In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement is an unprecedented abandonment of the Department of Justice’s responsibility to enforce civil rights laws and protect communities from unlawful police abuse. The findings of these investigations have revealed a litany of systemic harms to community members, whom officers are sworn to protect—from wanton violence and sexual misconduct to unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, and racially discriminatory policing. By abandoning its obligation to pursue legal remedies that would stem this unlawful conduct, DOJ necessarily condones it. DOJ’s actions today amount to a public declaration that law enforcement agencies are above the law.
“The decision to seek dismissal of consent decrees and conclude investigations after findings of extensive civil rights violations is an outright rebuke to the millions of people who clamored for justice following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black victims of police violence. The Department has relinquished its standing as an arbiter of civil rights enforcement, thus undermining its legitimacy, credibility, and legacy. We urge presiding judges to hold the Department and all relevant law enforcement agencies accountable and call upon State Attorneys General to fill the void left by DOJ’s refusal to protect the American people.”
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
