Johnson: Trump handcuffs Department of Justice, unleashing injustice ’until further notice’

This is an opinion column.

“…until further notice.”

You gotta love that phrase. On the surface, it says: Do this until I get back to you. Alas, what it says: Do this forever.

The phrase was contained in a memo sent Wednesday by Donald Trump’s new hit minion, Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle, to attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, according to The Associated Press. It instructed them not to file any new complaints or weigh in on any pending cases.

None.

It instructed them not to pursue justice…

…until further notice.

A second memo ordered DOJ attorneys to freeze the advancement of any civil rights litigation. Any justice…

…until further notice.

Additionally, the latter memo said DOJ “may wish to reconsider” any police reform consent agreements signed during President Joe Biden’s last 90 days, AP said. That not-so-curious time window would include agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville that were massaged in the wake of the egregious police murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, as well as other pending law enforcement agreements.

Agreements addressing woeful training and sometimes deadly use-of-force practices against citizens.

Consider those agreements on life support with Trump’s hand on the plug…

…until further notice.

In 2019, under Trump 1.0, the DOJ filed suit against Alabama’s Department of Corrections for its decrepit prisons that fester inmate-on-inmate violence and sexual abuse, excessive force by staff, and overall unsafe conditions, it called “unconstitutional.” The case is slated for trial in 2026 or …

…until further notice.

Last July, the DOJ filed a brief — called a statement of interest — in an 11-year-old lawsuit against the abysmal Alabama prisons by former and current inmates at St. Clair Correctional in Springville alleging similar unsafe conditions.

In it, the DOJ said: “The United States has a substantial interest in protecting the constitutional rights of all people, including prisoners, and ensuring the proper application of the legal standards grounded in the Eighth Amendment.”

At least it did. Now the DOJ is handcuffed ….

…until further notice.

Environmental justice — investigating areas where massive landfills, heavily polluting industrial facilities and inhumane living conditions, such as those in Lowndes County disproportionately impact low-income and minority communities — was birthed in the late 1980s under President George H. Bush, a Republican. He created an environmental equity group and convened meetings with community leaders to address the issue.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed Executive Order 12898 requiring federal agencies to fight for environmental justice “to the greatest extent practicable.”

Biden’s Executive Order 14008 in 2021 and 14096 in 2023 mandated federal climate-related resources to communities impacted by environmental justice concerns.

On Monday, those three EOs received notice; all were revoked with a sweep of Trump’s sharpie.

No justice for those dying slowly from environmental poisons …

…until further notice.

Last May, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced an agreement with Alabama to fix a horrid, ongoing sewage crisis in Lowndes County. The state was given six months to assess the breadth of the damages and another six months to present a plan for creating a working sewage treatment system.

Just a working sewage system.

Now, the long-suffering residents of that county, where people just two generations ago fought — and some died — seeking to end injustice in and through the voting booth, may not have any recourse against the unsanitary injustice rising through the soil outside their homes …

…until further notice.

Justice lies at the core of our democracy, a quest often sought through the DOJ. Sought by all.

The undertone – sorry, the bold and blatant intention — of Trump’s actions in Week One is to shed America of any efforts to heal its self-inflicted wounds, to rebalance actions in our past that titled systems in favor of a few.

In so doing, the new administration, and those who voted to return them to power, will soon learn that many of the moves they’re cheering now will mow them down later, too.

And a gutted and grounded DOJ won’t be able to help.

A DOJ that sought justice for women — including white women — being violently abused at home and economically abused in the workplace.

At least it did…

…until further notice.

A DOJ that partnered with the U.S. Labor Department to protect the American worker — including white men — against unfair practices.

At least it did...

…until further notice.

A DOJ whose Servicemembers initiative rights wrongs perpetrated against veterans and their families.

At least it did…

…until further notice.

A DOJ that comes to the aid of our less-abled neighbors and family members to confront injustice by enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At least it did …

…until further notice.

In the masterful “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963 famously wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Injustice is about to be everywhere in America — and that’s a direct threat to all of us. To our single garment of destiny,

Until further notice.

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Let’s be better tomorrow than we are today. My column appears on AL.com, and digital editions of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, and Mobile Press-Register. Tell me what you think at rjohnson@al.com, and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, Instagram @roysj and BlueSky.