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breonna taylor
DOJ Slammed for Ending Efforts to Tackle Racist Policing
One critic called the move "an unprecedented abandonment of the Department of Justice's responsibility to enforce civil rights laws and protect communities from unlawful police abuse."
May 22, 2025
Racial justice advocates decried Wednesday's announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that it will end law enforcement reform and accountability efforts, including the Biden administration's agreements with the cities of Minneapolis and Louisville—a move that came just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis cop.
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division said it is dropping lawsuits against the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments and ending pending consent decrees—court-enforceable agreements under which law enforcement agencies commit to reform—with the two cities. The deals, which have been submitted to judges for approval, have been held up in federal court as the Trump administration has sought to block their implementation.
The Civil Rights Division said it "will also be closing its investigations into, and retracting the Biden administration's findings of constitutional violations on the part of," the Louisiana State Police and police departments in Phoenix; Memphis; Oklahoma City; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York.
To “disappear” DOJ findings like this is the most disturbing and disgraceful part. A key advantage of DOJ pattern & practice investigations is that DOJ has the resources to absorb the cost of generating the findings that indiv civ rights groups suing police depts find onerous & often prohibitive.
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— Sherrilyn Ifill ( @sifill.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who represents the families of George Floyd—murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020—and Breoanna Taylor, who was killed earlier that year by Louisville police, called the DOJ announcement a "slap in the face."
"Just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder—a moment that galvanized a global movement for justice—the U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to turn its back on the very communities it pledged to protect," Crump said in a statement Wednesday.
"By walking away from consent decrees in Minneapolis and Louisville, and closing its investigation into the Memphis Police Department while retracting findings of serious constitutional violations, the DOJ is not just rolling back reform, it is attempting to erase truth and contradicting the very principles for which justice stands," he asserted.
"These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy," Crump continued, adding that the DOJ's moves "will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect and serve."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) lamented the DOJ move and accused the Trump administration of acting "like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd's lives didn't mean a damn thing."
Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his city would proceed with reforms despite the DOJ's announcement, while questioning the move's timing.
"The Trump administration is a mess. It is predictable that they would move for a dismissal the very same week that George Floyd was murdered five years ago," he said. "What this shows is that all [President] Donald Trump really cares about is political theater."
The DOJ claimed the Biden administration falsely accused the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments of "widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices by wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relying on flawed methodologies and incomplete data."
"These sweeping consent decrees would have imposed years of micromanagement of local police departments by federal courts and expensive independent monitors, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of compliance costs, without a legally or factually adequate basis for doing so," the agency argued.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon—the conspiracy theorist who heads the Civil Rights Division despite, or perhaps because of, her troubled history of working against voting, reproductive, LGBTQ+, and other civil rights—said in a statement Wednesday that her agency is ending the Biden administration's "failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees."
"Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda," Dhillon added.
"DOJ's actions today amount to a public declaration that law enforcement agencies are above the law."
Legal Defense Fund director of strategic initiatives Jin Hee Lee called the DOJ announcement "an unprecedented abandonment of the Department of Justice's responsibility to enforce civil rights laws and protect communities from unlawful police abuse."
Lee said the DOJ investigations that led to the consent decrees "revealed a litany of systemic harms to community members, whom officers are sworn to protect—from wanton violence and sexual misconduct to unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, and racially discriminatory policing."
"By abandoning its obligation to pursue legal remedies that would stem this unlawful conduct, DOJ necessarily condones it," Lee added. "DOJ's actions today amount to a public declaration that law enforcement agencies are above the law."
NAACP president Derrick Johnson said on social media, "It's no surprise that Trump's Department of Coverups and Vengeance isn't seeking justice."
"It's been five years, and police reform legislation still hasn't passed in Congress, and police departments still haven't been held accountable," Johnson added, referring to Floyd's murder. "Five years."
Furthermore, speculation is growing over the prospect of Trump pardoning Chauvin. Addressing the possibility, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walzsaid earlier this week that "if Chauvin's federal conviction is pardoned, he will still have to serve the remainder of his 22-and-a-half-year state prison sentence for murder and manslaughter."
Opponents vowed to fight the Trump administration's civil rights pushback.
"Let me be clear: We will not give up," Crump said. "This movement will not be swayed or deterred by fickle politics. It is anchored in the irrefutable truth that Black lives matter, and that justice should not depend on who is in power."
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Bill Demanding Justice for Breonna Taylor Would Ban No-Knock Warrants Nationwide
"We know it was Breonna Taylor's dream to save lives," said one rights advocate, "and this proposed legislation would do just that."
Mar 11, 2024
Rights advocates on Monday applauded U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey for taking a "bold step toward healing and justice" by introducing the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would ban nationwide the kind of no-knock warrants that led to the 26-year-old woman's death in 2020.
Nearly four years to the day after Taylor was killed by police officers who forcibly entered her home in Louisville, Kentucky without warning, after allegedly lying to obtain the no-knock warrant, McGarvey (D-Ky.) joined Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in proposing the bill.
Louisville and Kentucky policymakers have both prohibited or severely restricted no-knock warrants since Taylor's killing.
"Louisvillians remember Breonna Taylor and are still grieving the tragedy of her inexcusable killing by police. After Breonna's death, we passed a ban on no-knock warrants at the state and local level—if we can do this in Kentucky, we can do this nationally," said McGarvey. "The Justice for Breonna Taylor Act is going to protect people and keep our communities safe."
Under the proposal, federal law enforcement and state and local police departments that receive federal funding would be prohibited from executing no-knock warrants.
"After Breonna's death, we passed a ban on no-knock warrants at the state and local level—if we can do this in Kentucky, we can do this nationally."
Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, denounced no-knock warrants as "legalized home invasions that put lives at risk on either side of a door."
In Taylor's case, police officers used a battering ram to break down the door to the Louisville apartment shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020.
They had been investigating two men for suspected drug dealing, including one who had previously been romantically involved with Taylor and who they believed had used Taylor's apartment to receive packages.
"We know it was Breonna Taylor's dream to save lives," Duke said of the emergency room technician, "and this proposed legislation would do just that. We applaud Congressman McGarvey and the bill's co-sponsors for taking this bold step toward healing and justice."
The legislation was introduced as federal authorities announced former Officer Brett Hankison will face a jury for a third time in the case.
None of the officers involved in the shooting have ever been charged with killing Taylor, but Hankison was charged by the state of Kentucky for endangering Taylor's neighbors. He was acquitted in March 2022 and the U.S. Justice Department then charged him with civil rights violations. A federal jury deadlocked in that trial.
"He shouldn't be the only one charged," attorney Lonita Baker, who represents Taylor's mother and sister, toldThe Washington Post."But the reality is that's where we stand and that's better than nothing."
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'It's About Damn Time': 4 Louisville Cops Charged in Killing of Breonna Taylor
"Breonna Taylor should be alive today, and the people who killed her must be held accountable," asserted one civil rights campaigner.
Aug 04, 2022
Following two years of racial justice activism, the U.S. government on Thursday charged four current and former Louisville, Kentucky officers for alleged federal crimes related to the March 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman who was shot dead in her own home during a botched police raid.
"Justice delayed is justice denied. But it's never too late to do the right thing."
Detective Joshua Jaynes, former officer Brett Hankison, former detective Kelly Hanna Goodlett, and Sgt. Kyle Meanie are facing federal charges that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said include "civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force, and obstruction offenses."
The Louisville Courier Journal reports all four defendants were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Justice Department alleges that Jaynes, Goodlett, and Meany violated Taylor's Fourth Amendment rights when they attempted to obtain a warrant to search her home while knowing they lacked probable cause, and that their affidavit supporting the warrant was based on lies related to alleged drug trafficking by Taylor's ex-boyfriend.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 BREAKING: Four of the Louisville police officers involved in the deadly no-knock raid and murder of Breonna Taylor are facing federal charges!\n\nThis is HUGE and it took so much hard work to get to this moment. \ud83e\uddf5\nhttps://t.co/AAG6ytXFi5\u201d— Grassroots Law Project (@Grassroots Law Project) 1659629623
A separate indictment charges Hankison--a former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer who was fired in July 2020 for firing blindly into Taylor's apartment-- with using "unconstitutionally excessive force during the raid on Ms. Taylor's home" by firing 10 shots into a neighboring apartment "without a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force."
No officers have been directly charged with killing Taylor, including Myles Cosgrove, the LMPD officer who shot her and was fired nine months later.
"The federal charges announced today allege that members of a Police Investigations Unit falsified the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant of Ms. Taylor's home and that this act violated federal civil rights laws, and that those violations resulted in Ms. Taylor's death," Garland told reporters.
"Among other things, the affidavit falsely claimed that officers had verified that the target of the alleged drug trafficking operation had received packages at Ms. Taylor's address," said Garland. "In fact, defendants Jaynes and Goodlett knew that was not true."
Civil rights defenders welcomed the prospect of some justice for a police killing that fueled Black Lives Matter and other racial justice protests in 2020 and beyond.
\u201c#NOW: D.C. is one of at least 18 cities where protests are underway after a Ky. grand jury cleared two Louisville officers in Breonna Taylor\u2019s killing.\n\n\u201cIt shows us how police in America deal with black and brown bodies with impunity,\u201d an organizer said, marching from the DOJ.\u201d— Alejandro Alvarez (@Alejandro Alvarez) 1600903478
"Today, by moving forward with criminal charges against the four police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor as she slept in her bed, federal officials are recognizing what we have all known for years: Breonna Taylor should be alive today, and the people who killed her must be held accountable," Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of Advancement Project, said in a statement.
Browne Dianis continued:
Police departments across the country routinely use excessive force or murder Black people without facing accountability. These killings are horrific and unacceptable. That's why people across the country took to the streets in the uprisings of 2020, sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, to urgently call for an end to police violence. They recognized that policing does not create safe communities.
It is critical to bring police to account for the use of violence against communities they have sworn to protect. And yet, these charges will not bring back Breonna and will never make her family and community whole again. To truly address the criminalization, arrests, and killings of people like Breonna Taylor, we must build a world that fundamentally values and protects Black people.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) tweeted that "on March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor was murdered by Louisville law enforcement. Today is finally a step toward justice for her mother, Tamika Palmer, who led the way to ask the Justice Department to hold accountable the officers responsible. #SayHerName."
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement, "We commend the Justice Department for pursuing federal charges against the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor. When local officials like Attorney General [Daniel] Cameron fail to conduct proper investigations into police shootings, the federal government should step in to ensure accountability."
\u201cThe FBI has arrested four LMPD officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor. \n\nAccountability is long overdue. We will never stop saying her name.\u201d— Charles Booker (@Charles Booker) 1659626295
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) tweeted: "Justice delayed is justice denied. But it's never too late to do the right thing. Despite Daniel Cameron's best efforts, accountability is finally coming for those responsible for Breonna Taylor's death. It's about damn time."
Cameron was accused of lying multiple times while attempting to explain why a grand jury did not charge any of the officers involved in Taylor's death. The state attorney general eventually admitted that he never asked the jurors to consider charging the officers with homicide.
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