17. Department of Justice · Notable
Terminate unnecessary or outdated consent decrees
Printed page 558 17. Department of Justice
“Seek to terminate any unnecessary or outdated consent decree to which the United States is a party.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Courts have granted the motions: a 47-year-old decree governing hiring by Norfolk's police and fire departments was terminated, days after the department dismissed a 44-year-old race-based decree. Terminations are running steadily through the window — New Orleans in November 2025, Newark days later — but the department has published no statement that the sweep of unnecessary or outdated decrees is complete, and it entered new consent decrees of its own in the same period.
- Partially done
The Civil Rights Division withdrew the proposed Louisville and Minneapolis police consent decrees and closed the underlying investigations, then supported Seattle's own motion to terminate its police decree in July.
- Partially done
The department began moving decree by decree: it dismissed a half-century-old Louisiana consent decree as no longer serving any purpose.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Open-ended ‘any X’ ask: a directive plus documented implementing actions is partial; done would need the department to say the review of decrees is finished.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- consent decrees to which the United States is a party
- ID
- 1555