Oversight Project Applauds Dismissal of Woke Biden Consent Decrees in Louisville and Minneapolis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2025
Washington, DC — The Oversight Project, the leading advocate for government accountability, applauds the Department of Justice’s decision to walk away from eleventh hour consent decrees that handcuff law enforcement and make America’s cities less safe. The Department’s decision to dismiss Biden-era lawsuits against the police departments in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota reflects the arguments made by the Oversight Project in its brief filed in U.S. v. Louisville/Jefferson Cty. Metro Gov., No. 3:24-cv-00722 (BJB) (W.D.Ky.) and in a letter the Oversight Project sent to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon.
The brief, filed in opposition to the entry of the Biden Department of Justice’s “woke” policing policies, provided critical legal and factual insights into key constitutional and policy
deficiencies of the proposed consent decree. The Oversight Project raised these arguments to successfully prevent the Biden Department of Justice from ramming the consent decree through the courts after the 2024 election in a non-adversarial proceeding. The Oversight Project followed up with the Trump Administration urging the dismissal of these consent decrees. The Department of Justice’s motions to dismiss the Louisville and Minneapolis consent decrees affirms the Oversight Project’s arguments.
Mike Howell, President of the Oversight Project offered the following statement:
“We are thrilled that the Department of Justice answered our call and walked away from the Biden Administration’s post-election federal takeover of the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments. When we saw these go into motion during the dying days of the Biden Administration, after the American people voted against woke policing, we jumped in and said enough is enough. As we argued in our brief, these woke consent decrees were an unlawful overreach by the federal government that did nothing to make these cities safer. These dismissals are a major win for law and order.”
Read our brief opposing the Louisville consent decree here.
Read our letter to AAG Dhillon urging the Trump Justice Department withdraw from the Louisville and Minneapolis consent decrees here.