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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
NYT
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