Didn’t see it in the article, so what exactly does a “consent decree” do?
so what exactly does a consent decree do?....Put your hands up where I can see them or I consent to blow your ass away! Understood?
“Consent decree” is another one of those Orwellian terms that the Left love so much. It’s when some community activists complain against a government agency, and they get a judge, and rather than the judge telling them (the activists) to go pound sand, he’ll get the government agency to “consent” to most of what the activists want, in order to spare them (the agency) from having to suffer through a long, drawn-out trial, at the end of which they’d be forced to do all of whatever it was that the activists wanted.
Consent decrees are legally binding, and they’re generally a bad deal for anyone on the opposite side from the activists. They are usually enforceable for a pre-set length of time (which can be years) before they expire. The court will sometimes appoint a “special master” (which is as ominous as it sounds) to make sure it gets enforced as strictly as the activists want it.
I don’t actually know how to get rid of one before it expires, unless the judge who imposed it can un-impose it.
It’s kind of like a plea bargain for local/state governments or government agencies. Basically, they get caught doing something bad, and to avoid the consequences of that, they enter an agreement that allows the feds to mandate they do certain things and appoints someone to monitor them to make sure they are complying. That monitor can go back to a judge and haul the government back before the court without having to go through the rigamarole of filing another case against them and proving it in court.
So, for example, all the states who were violating the Civil Rights Acts, Voting Rights Act, 14th Amendment, etc decades ago are still under consent decrees. One of the stipulations is that they can’t make certain changes to their election laws without the federal government approving. The federal government has no legal authority to insist on approving such things, but since they entered into the consent decree voluntarily, they have given the feds that power.