Posted on January 23, 2025

Justice Department Issues Freeze for Civil Rights Division

Perry Stein and David Nakamura, Washington Post, January 22, 2025

The Justice Department has ordered the civil rights division to halt much of its investigative activity dating from the Biden administration and not pursue new indictments, cases or settlements, according to a memo sent to the temporary head of the division that was obtained by The Washington Post.

The letter instructs Kathleen Wolfe — designated by the Trump administration as supervisor of the division — to ensure that civil rights attorneys do not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.”

Cases that have already been filed would be subject to the discretion of the judge overseeing them.

A separate memo sent to Wolfe on Wednesday says the civil rights division must notify the Justice Department’s chief of staff of any consent decrees the division has finalized within the last 90 days. That directive suggests that police-reform agreements the Justice Department has negotiated with cities including Minneapolis, Louisville and Memphis could be in jeopardy.

The first memo doesn’t state how long the freeze will last, but it largely shuts down the civil rights division for at least the early weeks of the Trump administration. Harmeet K. Dhillon, a Republican lawyer and activist who is President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the department, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

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It states that officials are implementing the freeze to be “consistent with the Department’s goal of ensuring that the Federal Government speaks with one voice in its view of the law and to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases.”

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“It’s beyond unusual — it’s unprecedented. We’ve never seen this before at this scale with any transfer of power, regardless of the ideology of any incoming president or administration,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. {snip}

In all, the Justice Department launched a dozen investigations into state and local law enforcement agencies during President Joe Biden’s tenure. {snip}

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