On his way out of the Justice Department, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued guidance to limit the the use of court-enforced agreements by federal law enforcement officials to overhaul state and local police departments.
The memo was signed Wednesday before Sessions was fired by President Trump, and made public by the Justice Department late Thursday.
The court-enforced agreements, known as consent decrees, were used by the Obama administration when departments were found to have rampant abuse that included civil rights violations.
Sessions had ordered a review of the existing consent decrees in April 2017, which encompassed the well-known and reported-on ones in Baltimore, Chicago, and Ferguson, Mo.
Going forward, the Justice Department “should exercise special caution” before entering into a consent decree, Sessions wrote in his nine-page memo.
The memo now mandates that the deputy attorney general or associate attorney general sign off on a consent decree — only after Justice Department lawyers write a formal memo to the top political appointees why a consent decree is absolutely needed.
Traditionally, consent decrees were handled by career lawyers in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Consent decrees can also now only be reached with a state or local police force that has a history of unconstitutional actions.
Under President Barack Obama’s Justice Department, 25 investigations into state and local law enforcement agencies were launched. When Obama left office in January 2017, the department was enforcing 14 consent decrees, including with the three forces previously mentioned.
Vanita Gupta, who headed the Civil Rights Division under Obama as the former principal deputy assistant attorney general, slammed the decision.
“Sessions dealt parting blow to DOJ career staff, issuing memo that restricts consent decrees. This is a slap in the face to dedicated staff who work tirelessly to enforce civil rights. Will affect policing, education, employment consent decrees, which is exactly why he issued it,” she said on Twitter late Thursday.
[Also read: New acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker now overseeing Mueller investigation: 6 things to know]
