U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey is worried a federal judge will not approve the proposed consent decree that would bind the Louisville Metro Police Department to court-enforced reforms.
McGarvey, Kentucky’s lone Democrat in Congress, made the comments in an interview with The Courier Journal on Friday, four days after U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton questioned city and U.S. Department of Justice officials over whether a consent decree was necessary and whether it would clash with Metro Government’s contract with the police union.
“This is an incredible moment for our city — and for the judge to not sign the agreement reached by the city and the Department of Justice would be a massive step backwards,” said McGarvey, who is from Louisville.
Beaton was appointed by Donald Trump in 2020. He has not given a timeline as to next steps on the consent decree or when he will make a decision on whether to approve it.
McGarvey, who was in Washington, D.C., on Monday for votes and did not have staff attend the hearing in front of Beaton, said his concerns were based on conversations with over 20 Louisville community members and leaders since the hearing, as well as on press accounts he had read.
As a result of Monday’s hearing, McGarvey said, some of those conversations have turned to what happens if a consent decree is not approved.
“There is no guidance, because it’s never happened before,” he said. “Every time an agreement has been reached between the Department of Justice and a city, a judge has signed the consent decree. So, there is no guidance for what happens if the judge refuses to sign a consent decree.”
Louisville officials and the DOJ signed the 242-page consent decree last month. The document lays out a roadmap of reforms negotiated to address the violations found in a wide-ranging DOJ investigation of LMPD.
That investigation, launched in the wake of the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor, determined LMPD engages in “a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law” in a number of ways.
While there have been concerns about what the future of a consent decree under the Trump administration — which opposed the agreements the first time in office — would be, McGarvey said he had received assurances that if Louisville’s gets signed, it will likely go forward.
“We’ve asked the Department of Justice this exact question,” he said when asked if he feared the Trump administration could weaken or scrap a signed consent decree. “Their response … to me was that once the consent decree is agreed to by the Department of Justice and the city, and the judge signs the consent decree, that they are very difficult to undo.”
Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @JWoodJourno.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Morgan McGarvey worried Judge Beaton will not sign LMPD consent decree