First on Fox: A Kentucky judge refused to immediately sign a police reform consent decree drafted by the Justice Department and the city of Louisville during a hearing that one courtroom participant described as a hasty attempt by the Biden administration to obstruct President-elect Donald Trump.
Monday's hearing was one of at least three instances of ongoing litigation taking place Biden administration It seeks to enshrine progressive policing policies at the eleventh hour in a way that will be difficult to reverse.
Federal Judge Benjamin Peyton declined to be a “rubber stamp” for a 240-page reform plan spurred by the 2020 police shooting of Breonna Taylor, Kyle Brosnan, a consultant for the Oversight Project, said in an interview Tuesday.
Taylor was killed in a hail of police gunfire after Louisville officers sought to serve a drug search warrant on her Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker home, when her lover fired a “warning shot” through the door and hit Officer Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.
Biden and Garland (Getty)
Brosnan noted that a consent decree differs from other legal agreements in that it cannot be voided simply by presidential order or by a change of mind of one of the parties involved.
Brosnan called the Kentucky ordinance reforms “woke,” while his colleague, Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell, previously called them “a laundry list of BLM-type standards” that the left has long called for.
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund joined the amicus brief filed, and Brosnan also noted that LELDF leader Jason Johnson has “first-hand experience” with the consent decrees that followed the Freddie Gray riots and the investigation that followed.
The consent decree alleged a pattern or practice of racial bias in Louisville police, including in traffic stops, sexual assault investigations or use of force.
“And the judge reviewed each of these topics and said, ‘Well, what is your basis for this?’” Brosnan recounted.
In court, Justice Department attorney Paul Killebrew was asked to provide data on deadly force incidents to better understand the patterns alleged in the consent decree.
Killebrew reportedly responded that the Justice Department could not provide such information in order to “maintain leverage” in any future lawsuit.
That dynamic was a theme during the marathon hearing, according to Brosnan.
However, this was not the only opportunity Ministry of Justice The city has to convince Peyton to sign their ordinance, with the judge giving until Friday to submit additional documents, but time is of the essence.
Although Inauguration Day is not necessarily a deadline for Biden's Justice Department to get the ordinance approved, it won't be long after that and time will likely run out, Brosnan said.
He compared this dynamic to the way Trump — early in his first term — fired Obama's acting Justice Department head, Sally Yates, for refusing to implement his “Muslim ban.”
Outgoing administration officials at various levels will remain in “acting” roles until the Senate confirms the new nominees.
The Biden Justice Department effectively even has Pamela Bondi as attorney general or Harmeet Dhillon as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in position to get their edict across the finish line, the lawyer said.
Brosnan said there are at least two other police reform consent decrees being filed through the legal process: in Maryland and Minnesota.
On January 6, the Justice Department reached an agreement with Minneapolis — which still requires court approval — to reform the department’s “unconstitutional and unlawful practices” that allegedly conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 14th Amendment.
In October 2024, the feds sued the Maryland State Police Department for allegedly violating the Civil Rights Act.
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Along with President-elect Donald Trump and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Getty Images)
“The United States alleges that MDSP violated Title VII when it used a certain physical fitness test and a certain written test to hire entry-level soldiers because the tests excluded more female and African-American applicants than others and were not job-related,” the court document reads.
Maryland police reject these charges.
The petitioners on Monday noted how the last Trump administration began with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions reviewing Obama-era consent decrees.
“You are within your power as a judge to put on the brakes and wait to see what the new administration here has to say,” Brosnan described their testimony to Peyton.
“Trump has a right to not have his hands kind of tied by the Biden administration — he won overall because of the crime problems in urban America.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
