Attorney General Merrick Garland has undone a Trump era limitation on the usage of consent decrees by the Justice Department in cases involving state and local governments. Consent decrees are binding agreements that are developed outside of direct litigation, and historically, the Obama administration used these measures to impose reforms on police departments with rampant misconduct in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. Limiting the Justice Department’s ability to use consent decrees could harm the federal ability to deal with police misconduct problems and related issues.
Garland commented as follows:
‘The [Justice] Department will return to the traditional process that allows the heads of litigating components to approve most settlement agreements, consent decrees, and the use of monitors in cases involving state and local governmental entities.’
‘This memorandum makes clear that the Department will use all appropriate legal authorities to safeguard civil rights and protect the environment, consistent with longstanding Departmental practice and informed by the expertise of the Department’s career workforce.’
Originally, then-Attorney General Jeff Session imposed a memo limiting the Justice Department’s usage of consent decrees in late 2018, and his successor, Bill Barr, backed him up.
This reversal of the Trump administration’s position isn’t the only such move from the Biden team.
Pamela Karlan, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, issued a formal memo in March outlining an extension of anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students. Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees are protected from anti-LGBTQ discrimination under federal civil rights legislation, but the Trump administration originally stated that they wouldn’t be applying this ruling to educational contexts, although schools that receive federal funding are covered by similar civil rights rules. Notably, Karlan (as a then-non-governmental attorney) was on the winning side in the Supreme Court case that formally won the protections against workplace discrimination.
This week, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland also moved to undo some of the Trump legacy. As summarized by the Associated Press, she “revoked a series of Trump administration orders that promoted fossil fuel development on public lands and waters, and issued a separate directive that prioritizes climate change in agency decisions.” While in office, Trump repeatedly dismissed the threat of climate change to the point that he once said that he simply didn’t “believe” a report about the looming impacts of climate change from within his own administration.
