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Multi-Textual Constitutions

We have long been taught that constitutions are either “written” or “unwritten.” But this binary classification is wrong. All constitutions are in some way written, and all constitutions contain unwritten rules. This false distinction moreover overlooks the most important formal difference among the constitutions of the world: some constitutions consist of a single, supreme document of higher law while others consist of multiple documents, each enacted separately with shared supremacy under law. Ubiquitous but so far unnoticed, these constitutions comprising multiple texts are a unique constitutional form that has yet to be studied and theorized. I call them multi-textual constitutions.

This Article is the first on multi-textuality as a constitutional form. I draw from current and historical constitutions in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania to explain, illustrate, and theorize the design and operation of multi-textual constitutions. I examine their origins, compare how they perform relative to the alternative uni-textual constitutional form, and outline a research agenda for further study. What results is a reordering of our basic constitutional categories, a deep analytical dive into a distinct constitutional form, and a disruptive revelation about the United States Constitution, the world’s paradigmatic model of a uni-textual constitution.

Introduction: Beyond Written and Unwritten Constitutions

For generations, the study of constitutional law has begun with a standard distinction: some constitutions are “written” while others are “unwritten.”1 1.See Michael Foley, The Silence of Constitutions: Gaps, ‘Abeyances’ and Political Temperament in the Maintenance of Government 3 (1989) (“One of the most traditional points of departure in the study of constitutions has been to classify them according to whether they are ‘written’ or ‘unwritten.’”); Andrew Heywood, Politics 293 (2d ed. 2002) (“Traditionally, considerable emphasis has been placed on the distinction between written and unwritten constitutions.”); Herbert W. Horwill, The Usages of the American Constitution 1 (1925) (“Once upon a time some unknown humorist divided constitutions into written and unwritten, and since then text-book after text-book has taken his classification seriously. The American Constitution, we are told, is an example of the former class and the English of the latter.”); see also A.V. Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution 3–6 (3d ed. 1889) (distinguishing written and unwritten constitutions on several grounds, including how to locate them and how to identify their constitutive rules); Paul Craig, Written and Unwritten Constitutions: The Modality of Change, in Pragmatism, Principle, and Power inCommon Law Constitutional Systems 263, 263 (Sam Bookman, Edward Willis, Hanna Wilberg & Max Harris eds., 2022) (describing written constitutions as “the norm” and unwritten constitutions as “the rare exception”); James Allan, Against Written Constitutionalism, 14 Otago L. Rev. 191, 191–93 (2015) (observing that “[m]ost of the democratic world has some sort of written constitution” while at most three democracies have an “unwritten constitution,” namely Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom).Show More According to this traditional contrast, written constitutions exist on parchment in documentary form, while unwritten constitutions are intangible sets of invisible rules consisting of norms, principles, and practices that sustain the constitutional order without entrenchment in written word.2 2.See, e.g., W.J. Cocker, The Government of the United States 55 (1889) (“Constitutions are either written or unwritten. A written constitution is a body of laws, contained in a written document, under which the government is conducted. The Constitution of the United States is an example. . . . An unwritten constitution is one having no definite form. The English constitution is an example.”); Lucius Hudson Holt, The Elementary Principles of Modern Government 26 (1923) (“A constitution may be written or unwritten. It may be a single document, like the constitution of the United States, or it may be a combination of legal precedent, individual bills and grants, and immemorial customs, like the constitution of England.”); John Alexander Jameson, A Treatise on Constitutional Conventions; Their History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding 77 (4th ed. 1887) (“An unwritten Constitution is made up largely of customs and judicial decisions, the former more or less evanescent and intangible . . . . Not so with written Constitutions.”); Emlin McClain, Constitutional Law in the United States 11 (1905) (“If the body of rules and principles is not reduced to definite and authoritatively written form, the constitution is said to be unwritten, as in the familiar case of Great Britain.”).Show More This foundational distinction has been the basic building block in constitutional studies. But it is both incorrect and misleading.

The distinction between written and unwritten constitutions is incorrect because all constitutions are in some way written. Even parts of the paradigmatically “unwritten” Constitution of the United Kingdom are written somewhere, namely in statutes that are endowed with constitutional status,3 3.SeeThoburn v. Sunderland City Council [2002] EWHC (Admin) 195 [62], [2003] QB 151 (Eng.) (enumerating statutes that have constitutional status).Show More for instance the Magna Carta,4 4.Magna Carta 1297, 25 Edw. 1 c. 9 (Eng.).Show More the Bill of Rights,5 5.Bill of Rights 1688, 1 W. & M. c. 2 (Eng.).Show More and the Human Rights Act.6 6.Human Rights Act 1998, c. 42 (UK).Show More It is more accurate to describe an “unwritten” constitution as partly codified and partly uncodified, since many of its constitutional norms appear in official texts.

The familiar distinction between written and unwritten constitutions is moreover misleading because all constitutions contain unwritten rules. No constitution is ever fully written, and one might well wonder whether it is possible for a constitution to be set out entirely in documentary form.7 7.See John Gardner, Can There Be a Written Constitution?, in 1 Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law 162, 188–92 (Leslie Green & Brian Leiter eds., 2011).Show More Even the United States Constitution—the archetypical “written” constitution—consists of “a constitution outside the constitution,”8 8.See Ernest A. Young, The Constitution Outside the Constitution, 117 Yale L.J. 408, 410–14 (2007).Show More a common reference to the extra-canonical norms, practices, relationships, and institutions that form part of the constitution beyond its text. Scholars have properly recognized that the U.S. Constitution is comprised of various “invisible”9 9.Laurence H. Tribe, The Invisible Constitution 25–27 (2008). Similar themes appear in relation to works on the “unwritten” Constitution of the United States. SeeAkhil Reed Amar, America’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By, at ix–x (2012); Don K. Price, America’s Unwritten Constitution: Science, Religion, and Political Responsibility 9 (1983).Show More elements, and they have even inquired whether and how it might be possible to amend America’s unwritten constitution.10 10.See Richard Albert, Ryan C. Williams & Yaniv Roznai, Introduction: A Return to Constitutional Basics: Amendment, Constitution, and Writtenness, in Amending America’s Unwritten Constitution 1, 14–16 (Richard Albert, Ryan C. Williams & Yaniv Roznai eds., 2022).Show More

This false distinction between written and unwritten constitutions comes at a great cost. It overlooks and obscures the most important formal distinction among the constitutions of the world: some constitutions consist of a single, supreme document of higher law while others consist of multiple documents, each enacted separately with shared supremacy under law. In jurisdictions governed by more than one document of higher law, the constitution is composed of more than one self-standing text of equal legal force, and together those texts are regarded jointly as the supreme law of the land.11 11.In this Article, I focus only on multi-textual national constitutions, but multi-textual constitutions exist also at the subnational and supranational levels.Show More The documents comprising these constitutions are enacted separately in a variety of forms, for instance, as founding constitutional texts, organic laws endowed with constitution-level status, and constitutional amendments promulgated as separate documents.

Ubiquitous yet so far unidentified, this constitutional form defies our conventional understanding of “written” constitutions. Rather than one official text, there are many, and no single text prevails over another because all are considered equal. These constitutions are therefore unlike uni-textual constitutions whose written elements appear in a single document that is treated as the only supreme law of the land. I call them multi-textual constitutions. Multi-textual constitutions differ from single-text constitutions on the major markers of constitutional life: their initial design, their ongoing evolution, their authoritative interpretation, and their formal amendment. Multi-textual constitutions moreover raise intriguing possibilities for governance in relation to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law that set them apart from what is regarded as the world’s dominant model of uni-textual constitutions.12 12.SeeDenis J. Galligan & Mila Versteeg, Theoretical Perspectives on the Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions, in Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions 3, 6 (Denis J. Galligan & Mila Versteeg eds., 2013) (observing that “the standard practice across the nations of the world, with just a few exceptions, is to have a single written constitutional document”).Show More

There are advantages to introducing “multi-textual constitutions” as a term and category in the field of public law generally and constitutional studies specifically. Using “multi-textual” as a new term to identify this unique classification of constitutions brings a much-needed correction to the mistaken identification of constitutions as “unwritten.” In addition, using “multi-textual” as a new category for constitutions distinguishes them in both form and function from the alternative uni-textual model.

Scholars have yet to identify, explain, and theorize multi-textuality as a distinctive constitutional form despite its prevalence in every region of the world, across all legal traditions, and in all types of constitutional states no matter their age. My purpose in this Article is to introduce, illustrate, and theorize multi-textuality with reference to current and historical constitutions, and to show how this ubiquitous constitutional form disrupts much of what we know about constitutions, including the U.S. Constitution. The great revelation is that the U.S. Constitution consists of multiple documents of higher law, each equally supreme in the constitutional order. Yet, as I will show, although the U.S. Constitution satisfies the trio of legal criteria to be defined in form and operation as multi-textual, it fails the sociological test of public recognition as multi-textual because it is perceived in law and society as uni-textual.

I begin, in Part I, by showing the remarkable omnipresence of multi-textual constitutions in the world. I draw from many constitutional traditions to show the prevalence of multi-textuality in countries rooted in civil and common law traditions, with parliamentary and presidential systems, and in the Global North and South. I furthermore show that multi-textual constitutions are created in one of two ways: either by express design or by unplanned evolution. In Part II, I identify problems created by multi-textual constitutions in connection with three basic questions that are not ordinarily asked of uni-textual constitutions: (1) what is the constitution?, (2) where is the constitution?, and (3) when does a set of legal rules becomes constitutional? Part III then turns to the potential promise of multi-textuality. I highlight three areas of strength for multi-textual constitutions: (1) they make possible incremental constitutional development as a constitutional state begins the transition from one regime to another; (2) they make available multiple options for constitutional reform and may therefore offer more flexibility in managing changes to higher law; and (3) they may help forestall the rise of a popular obsession with the constitution, what scholars have diagnosed as “veneration,” a problematic phenomenon traceable to James Madison,13 13.See The Federalist No. 49, at 340 (James Madison) (Jacob E. Cooke ed., 1961).Show More one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution. I close with a research agenda for future study to enhance our understanding of both uni-textual and multi-textual constitutions.

  1.  See Michael Foley, The Silence of Constitutions: Gaps, ‘Abeyances’ and Political Temperament in the Maintenance of Government 3 (1989) (“One of the most traditional points of departure in the study of constitutions has been to classify them according to whether they are ‘written’ or ‘unwritten.’”); Andrew Heywood, Politics 293 (2d ed. 2002) (“Traditionally, considerable emphasis has been placed on the distinction between written and unwritten constitutions.”); Herbert W. Horwill, The Usages of the American Constitution 1 (1925) (“Once upon a time some unknown humorist divided constitutions into written and unwritten, and since then text-book after text-book has taken his classification seriously. The American Constitution, we are told, is an example of the former class and the English of the latter.”); see also A.V. Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution 3–6 (3d ed. 1889) (distinguishing written and unwritten constitutions on several grounds, including how to locate them and how to identify their constitutive rules); Paul Craig, Written and Unwritten Constitutions: The Modality of Change, in Pragmatism, Principle, and Power in Common Law Constitutional Systems 263, 263 (Sam Bookman, Edward Willis, Hanna Wilberg & Max Harris eds., 2022) (describing written constitutions as “the norm” and unwritten constitutions as “the rare exception”); James Allan, Against Written Constitutionalism, 14 Otago L. Rev. 191, 191–93 (2015) (observing that “[m]ost of the democratic world has some sort of written constitution” while at most three democracies have an “unwritten constitution,” namely Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). ↑
  2.  See, e.g., W.J. Cocker, The Government of the United States 55 (1889) (“Constitutions are either written or unwritten. A written constitution is a body of laws, contained in a written document, under which the government is conducted. The Constitution of the United States is an example. . . . An unwritten constitution is one having no definite form. The English constitution is an example.”); Lucius Hudson Holt, The Elementary Principles of Modern Government 26 (1923) (“A constitution may be written or unwritten. It may be a single document, like the constitution of the United States, or it may be a combination of legal precedent, individual bills and grants, and immemorial customs, like the constitution of England.”); John Alexander Jameson, A Treatise on Constitutional Conventions; Their History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding 77 (4th ed. 1887) (“An unwritten Constitution is made up largely of customs and judicial decisions, the former more or less evanescent and intangible . . . . Not so with written Constitutions.”); Emlin McClain, Constitutional Law in the United States 11 (1905) (“If the body of rules and principles is not reduced to definite and authoritatively written form, the constitution is said to be unwritten, as in the familiar case of Great Britain.”). ↑
  3.  See Thoburn v. Sunderland City Council [2002] EWHC (Admin) 195 [62], [2003] QB 151 (Eng.) (enumerating statutes that have constitutional status). ↑
  4.  Magna Carta 1297, 25 Edw. 1 c. 9 (Eng.). ↑
  5.  Bill of Rights 1688, 1 W. & M. c. 2 (Eng.). ↑
  6.  Human Rights Act 1998, c. 42 (UK). ↑
  7.  See John Gardner, Can There Be a Written Constitution?, in 1 Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law 162, 188–92 (Leslie Green & Brian Leiter eds., 2011). ↑
  8.  See Ernest A. Young, The Constitution Outside the Constitution, 117 Yale L.J. 408, 410–14 (2007). ↑
  9.  Laurence H. Tribe, The Invisible Constitution 25–27 (2008). Similar themes appear in relation to works on the “unwritten” Constitution of the United States. See Akhil Reed Amar, America’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By, at ix–x (2012); Don K. Price, America’s Unwritten Constitution: Science, Religion, and Political Responsibility 9 (1983). ↑
  10.  See Richard Albert, Ryan C. Williams & Yaniv Roznai, Introduction: A Return to Constitutional Basics: Amendment, Constitution, and Writtenness, in Amending America’s Unwritten Constitution 1, 14–16 (Richard Albert, Ryan C. Williams & Yaniv Roznai eds., 2022). ↑
  11.  In this Article, I focus only on multi-textual national constitutions, but multi-textual constitutions exist also at the subnational and supranational levels. ↑
  12.  See Denis J. Galligan & Mila Versteeg, Theoretical Perspectives on the Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions, in Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions
    3, 6 (

    Denis J. Galligan & Mila Versteeg eds.,

    2013) (

    observing that “the standard practice across the nations of the world, with just a few exceptions, is to have a single written constitutional document”). ↑

  13.  See The Federalist No. 49, at 340 (James Madison) (Jacob E. Cooke ed., 1961). ↑

Is Performing an Abortion a Removable Offense? Abortion Within the Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude Framework

Before Roe v. Wade was decided, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) found that performing an illegal abortion was a crime involving moral turpitude in the context of immigration law. As a result, pre-Roe, a noncitizen could be removed from or declared inadmissible to the United States if they were convicted of or admitted to performing an illegal abortion. Because the standard of moral turpitude is one that evolves with society as societal values change, it is unclear that the BIA would still find performing an illegal abortion to be a crime involving moral turpitude today. In order for a conviction to constitute a crime involving moral turpitude, the statute the defendant was convicted under must require sufficient intent and criminalize reprehensible conduct. This Note looks to the history of moral turpitude and the current tests applied in immigration law to determine whether performing an illegal abortion could be considered a crime involving moral turpitude post-Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After applying the relevant tests and comparing performing an illegal abortion to crimes that have previously been designated crimes involving moral turpitude, this Note reaches the conclusion that performing an illegal abortion should not be found to be a crime involving moral turpitude.

Introduction

In 1946, before Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey were decided,1 1.See generally Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973); Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).Show More the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) determined that performing an illegal abortion was a crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”) in the immigration context.2 2.Matter of M—–, 2 I. & N. Dec. 525, 528 (B.I.A. 1946).Show More As a result, pre-Roe, a noncitizen could be removed from or declared inadmissible to the United States if they were convicted of performing an illegal abortion.3 3.The current version of the Immigration and Nationality Act states that a noncitizen is inadmissible if they have been convicted of or admit to having committed a CIMT. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). A noncitizen who has been legally in the United States is removable if they are convicted of a single CIMT within five years of admission and if the conviction carried a potential imprisonment of at least one year. Id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i). A noncitizen is removable if they commit two CIMTs not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct at any point after admission. Id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii).Show More While there has not been an immigration case determining whether performing an illegal abortion is a CIMT post-Roe, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization4 4.142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022).Show More creates the possibility that this may change. It is important for both criminal defense attorneys and immigration advocates to be aware of the implications of this reality.

This Note explores the history of moral turpitude and analyzes whether performing an illegal abortion would be considered a CIMT today. After the Supreme Court decided Dobbs, overturning Roe and Casey,5 5.Id. at 2242.Show More the United States faced, and still faces, a period of uncertainty regarding abortion laws. At the time Dobbs was decided, some states had trigger laws in place that immediately outlawed virtually all abortion as soon as Roe was overturned,6 6.See, e.g., La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061 (2023).Show More while other states passed new abortion bans,7 7.See, e.g., West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Signs Abortion Ban Into Law, Politico (Sept. 16, 2022, 2:17 PM), https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/16/west-virginia-jim-justice-abort‌ion-ban-law-00057255 [https://perma.cc/7GN9-UWKV].Show More the strictest of which criminalized abortion from the time of conception.8 8.Ark. Code Ann. §§ 5-61-303 to 5-61-304 (Supp. 2023).Show More These new laws conflict with previously existing statutes at times9 9.Rebecca Boone & Claire Rush, Post-Roe, States Struggle With Conflicting Abortion Bans, AP News (July 1, 2022, 6:41 PM), https://apnews.com/article/abortion-state-governments-idaho-afa15cab32e3f46524997e0255fe8c8f [https://perma.cc/9NKK-JGXC].Show More and create an unclear line between a legal abortion under federal law and a felony abortion under state law.10 10.Compare Exec. Order No. 14,067, 87 C.F.R. 42053 (July 8, 2022) (stating that abortion is “essential to justice, equality, and our health, safety, and progress as a Nation” and directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to protect and expand access to abortion care), with Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 170A.004 (West 2022) (classifying abortion as a felony of the first or second degree). A similar conflict is currently being litigated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with respect to Idaho’s abortion law. United States v. Idaho, No. 23-35440, 2023 WL 6308107, at *1 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2023). The federal government argued that federal law could require abortions which are not included under the State’s life of the mother exception. Id. at *3. The Ninth Circuit found in favor of the State, overturning a district court decision and granting a stay of the preliminary injunction on Idaho’s abortion law. Id. at *1, *7. The Ninth Circuit panel stated that the state law did not restrict abortions required by federal law. Id. at *5. The Ninth Circuit later vacated the order and agreed to rehear the matter en banc. See United States v. Idaho, 82 F.4th 1296 (9th Cir. 2023). An en banc panel subsequently denied Idaho’s motion to stay the injunction pending appeal. See United States v. Idaho, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 30135 (9th Cir. Nov. 13, 2023).Show More Other states have since passed new statutes to protect an individual’s right to receive an abortion.11 11.As of sixty days after Dobbs was passed, sixteen states had “passed legislation to protect access to abortion before and in response to Dobbs.” Larissa Jimenez, 60 Days After Dobbs: State Legal Developments on Abortion,Brennan Ctr. for Just. (Aug. 24, 2022), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/60-days-after-dobbs-state-legal-de‌velopments-abortion [https://perma.cc/VB7W-SVPY].Show More Immigration attorneys have recognized the danger these new abortion laws may present in immigration law.12 12.Immigration attorneys and advocates published an open letter to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) after Dobbs, requesting that DHS clarify that abortion-related convictions would not be used as a basis for immigration enforcement actions. Letter from Advocs. for Youth et al. to Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Sec’y, U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (July 19, 2022), https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/‌files/research/coalition‌_ur‌ges_dhs_to_protect_the_right_to_abortion_after_dobbs.pdf [https://perma.cc/5LAJ-SX‌HP].Show More

The term “crime . . . involving moral turpitude” first appeared in immigration law in the Immigration Act of 1891 as a ground for exclusion13 13.Immigration Act of 1891, Pub. L. No. 51-551, § 1, 26 Stat. 1084.Show More and was designated by Congress as a ground for removal in 1917.14 14.Immigration Act of 1917, Pub. L. No. 64-301, § 19, 39 Stat. 874.Show More The term “crime involving moral turpitude” has never been defined by Congress15 15.See Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 234 (1951) (Jackson, J., dissenting) (“Congress did not see fit to state what meaning it attributes to the phrase ‘crime involving moral turpitude.’”); see also De Leon v. Lynch, 808 F.3d 1224, 1228 (10th Cir. 2015) (“The phrase ‘crime involving moral turpitude’ is not defined in the INA; instead, its contours have been shaped through interpretation and application by the Attorney General, the Board, and federal courts. It is ‘perhaps the quintessential example of an ambiguous phrase.’”).Show More and instead has largely been left to judicial interpretation. The result is a patchwork area of law, with circuit splits both as to what constitutes a CIMT and what the correct test is to apply to make that determination. The current definition put forth by the BIA is that a CIMT is “conduct that is ‘inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between persons or to society in general.’”16 16.Matter of Silva-Trevino, 26 I. & N. Dec. 826, 833 (B.I.A. 2016) (citation omitted) (interim decision).Show More

This Note will analyze total abortion bans enacted in the United States under the modern immigration CIMT framework and provide a basis for immigration advocates to argue that performing an illegal abortion is not a CIMT. Part I provides a brief history of CIMTs, both within and beyond immigration law. Part II provides an overview of the current frameworks used by the BIA and federal courts to determine if a conviction constitutes a CIMT. Part III analyzes how modern abortion bans are likely to fit within this framework, finding that these illegal abortions are unlikely to be considered CIMTs. Part IV discusses the potential implications were the BIA or a federal court to find that performing an abortion is a CIMT.

  1.  See generally Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973); Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992). ↑
  2.  Matter of M—–, 2 I. & N. Dec. 525, 528 (B.I.A. 1946). ↑
  3.  The current version of the Immigration and Nationality Act states that a noncitizen is inadmissible if they have been convicted of or admit to having committed a CIMT. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). A noncitizen who has been legally in the United States is removable if they are convicted of a single CIMT within five years of admission and if the conviction carried a potential imprisonment of at least one year. Id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i). A noncitizen is removable if they commit two CIMTs not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct at any point after admission. Id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). ↑
  4.  142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022). ↑
  5.  Id. at 2242. ↑
  6.  See, e.g., La. Stat. Ann. § 40:1061 (2023). ↑
  7.  See, e.g., West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Signs Abortion Ban Into Law, Politico (Sept. 16, 2022, 2:17 PM), https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/16/west-virginia-jim-justice-abort‌ion-ban-law-00057255 [https://perma.cc/7GN9-UWKV]. ↑
  8.  Ark. Code Ann. §§ 5-61-303 to 5-61-304 (Supp. 2023). ↑
  9.  Rebecca Boone & Claire Rush, Post-Roe, States Struggle With Conflicting Abortion Bans, AP News (July 1, 2022, 6:41 PM), https://apnews.com/article/abortion-state-governments-idaho-afa15cab32e3f46524997e0255fe8c8f [https://perma.cc/9NKK-JGXC]. ↑
  10.  Compare Exec. Order No. 14,067, 87 C.F.R. 42053 (July 8, 2022) (stating that abortion is “essential to justice, equality, and our health, safety, and progress as a Nation” and directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to protect and expand access to abortion care), with Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 170A.004 (West 2022) (classifying abortion as a felony of the first or second degree). A similar conflict is currently being litigated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with respect to Idaho’s abortion law. United States v. Idaho, No. 23-35440, 2023 WL 6308107, at *1 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2023). The federal government argued that federal law could require abortions which are not included under the State’s life of the mother exception. Id. at *3. The Ninth Circuit found in favor of the State, overturning a district court decision and granting a stay of the preliminary injunction on Idaho’s abortion law. Id. at *1, *7. The Ninth Circuit panel stated that the state law did not restrict abortions required by federal law. Id. at *5. The Ninth Circuit later vacated the order and agreed to rehear the matter en banc. See United States v. Idaho, 82 F.4th 1296 (9th Cir. 2023). An en banc panel subsequently denied Idaho’s motion to stay the injunction pending appeal. See United States v. Idaho, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 30135 (9th Cir. Nov. 13, 2023). ↑
  11.  As of sixty days after Dobbs was passed, sixteen states had “passed legislation to protect access to abortion before and in response to Dobbs.” Larissa Jimenez, 60 Days After Dobbs: State Legal Developments on Abortion,

    Brennan Ctr. for Just. (Aug. 24, 2022), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/60-days-after-dobbs-state-legal-de‌velopments-abortion [https://perma.cc/VB7W-SVPY]. ↑

  12.  Immigration attorneys and advocates published an open letter to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) after Dobbs, requesting that DHS clarify that abortion-related convictions would not be used as a basis for immigration enforcement actions. Letter from Advocs. for Youth et al. to Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Sec’y, U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (July 19, 2022), https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/‌files/research/coalition‌_ur‌ges_dhs_to_protect_the_right_to_abortion_after_dobbs.pdf [https://perma.cc/5LAJ-SX‌HP]. ↑
  13.  Immigration Act of 1891, Pub. L. No. 51-551, § 1, 26 Stat. 1084. ↑
  14.  Immigration Act of 1917, Pub. L. No. 64-301, § 19, 39 Stat. 874. ↑
  15.  See Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 234 (1951) (Jackson, J., dissenting) (“Congress did not see fit to state what meaning it attributes to the phrase ‘crime involving moral turpitude.’”); see also De Leon v. Lynch, 808 F.3d 1224, 1228 (10th Cir. 2015) (“The phrase ‘crime involving moral turpitude’ is not defined in the INA; instead, its contours have been shaped through interpretation and application by the Attorney General, the Board, and federal courts. It is ‘perhaps the quintessential example of an ambiguous phrase.’”). ↑

  16.  Matter of Silva-Trevino, 26 I. & N. Dec. 826, 833 (B.I.A. 2016) (citation omitted) (interim decision). ↑

The Federal Government’s Role in Local Policing

For far too long, the federal government has failed to exercise its constitutional authority to mitigate the harms imposed by local policing. Absent federal intervention, though, some harmful aspects of policing will not be addressed effectively, or at all. States and localities often lack the necessary capacity and expertise to change policing, and many states and localities lack the will. This Article argues for federal intervention and describes what that intervention should look like.

The Article begins by describing three paradigmatic areas of local policing that require federal intervention to create real change: excessive use of force, racial discrimination, and the unregulated use of surveillance technologies. Because state and local governments are either unable or unwilling to address these problems alone, the federal government should intervene to identify and enforce minimum standards, develop best practices, collect data, and distribute resources nationwide.

Regrettably, Congress has failed to act adequately to improve local policing for the better, although it has tried to encourage reform through the use of its Spending Power. This Article argues that Congress should utilize its regulatory powers under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Commerce Clause to address these paradigmatic problem areas, and it explains how this can be done consistently with Supreme Court doctrine.

Alongside—or in the absence of—congressional action, the executive branch has the power and responsibility to act to address policing’s harms. The Article explains that, though indirect, the President wields considerable power to influence policing by setting policy, implementing federal programs, enforcing civil rights, and supervising federal law enforcement. Although the executive branch should use this power to promote local policing that is effective, fair, and accountable, and that minimizes harm, administration after administration has failed to do so consistently and also has failed to hold federal law enforcement to these standards. Recent executive branch efforts have improved the situation, but there still exists a gaping chasm between how the federal government should be influencing local policing and how it is doing so today.

Introduction

23,0000 > 18,000 > 50 > 1. That is the mathematics of transforming American policing. Just under 23,000 cities and counties, 18,000 police departments, 50 states.1 1.These numbers obviously are approximations and vary from year to year. See Press Release, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau Reports There Are 89,004 Local Governments in the United States (Aug. 30, 2012), https://www.census.gov/newsroom/‌releases/archives/governments/cb12-161.html [https://perma.cc/HJH6-QHV7] (number of cities and counties in 2012 Census); Duren Banks, Joshua Hendrix, Matthew Hickman & Tracey Kyckelhahn, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., National Sources of Law Enforcement Employment Data 1 (2016), https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsleed.pdf [https://perma.cc/6ZJW-8RCF] (reporting that there are about 18,000 police departments).Show More And one federal government. The point seems obvious. If the goal is to change policing for the better, mustering the authority of the federal government can provide an enormous fulcrum.

Even if every one of those 23,000 cities and counties and 18,000 agencies were trying to make policing fairer and less harmful, they could not do so by themselves. Some are far too small to have the expertise or resources to do so. More than eighty-five percent of local police departments and three-quarters of sheriffs’ offices have fewer than fifty officers.2 2.See Sean E. Goodison, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., Local Police Departments Personnel, 2020, at 3 (2022) [hereinafter Goodison, Local Police Departments Personnel], https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/lpdp20.pdf [https://perma.‌cc/4MUQ-8KHV]; Connor Brooks, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., Sheriffs’ Offices Personnel, 2020, at 3 (2022), https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/‌document/sop20.pdf [https://perma.cc/A5NL-X8WY]. Maria Ponomarenko has provided one of the best accounts of the challenges of small agencies. See generally Maria Ponomarenko, The Small Agency Problem in American Policing, 98 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4537989 [https://perma.cc/J3E3-K9‌CN].Show More Yet, large jurisdictions struggle as well, and there is little doubt why. Most agencies lack the capacity to assess and adopt best practices without help. Or collect and share information in a consistent manner. Or attend to the interests of those most affected by policing in the face of other pressures and priorities. The simple fact is that even the most willing of states and localities cannot articulate or enforce national values and standards or coordinate easily across state lines. Only the federal government can do this.

Realistically, though, not all jurisdictions are focused on eliminating the harm in policing. Some are. Some states have pursued legislative or other changes to improve policing, and some states have done enough of this to plainly be taking the endeavor seriously.3 3.See, e.g., Jennifer Brown & Jesse Paul, Colorado Governor Signs Sweeping Police Accountability Bill into Law. Here’s How It Will Change Law Enforcement., Colo. Sun (June 19, 2020, 9:53 AM), https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/19/colorado-police-accountability-bill-becomes-law/ [https://perma.cc/JNV4-9KM8]; Michael Levenson & Bryan Pietsch, Maryland Passes Sweeping Police Reform Legislation, N.Y. Times (Apr. 10, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/maryland-police-reform.html [https://perma.cc/JY‌8W-ZL89]; Ned Oliver, Police Reforms Go into Effect in Virginia, Va. Mercury (Mar. 2, 2021, 12:05 AM), https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog-va/police-reforms-go-into-effect-in-virginia/ [https://perma.cc/V82Q-GGJK].Show More Overall, however, the spate of enactments since the nation’s response to the murder of George Floyd tend to be piecemeal at best.4 4.See, e.g., Liz Crampton, States Passed 243 Policing Bills—and Left Activists Wanting, Politico (May 26, 2021, 4:30 AM), https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/26/states-policing-bills-490850 [https://perma.cc/D2CW-NHCN] (reporting activist frustration regarding limited reforms after George Floyd’s murder); Mark Berman & David Nakamura, From George Floyd to Tyre Nichols, Pleas for Police Reform Meet Bleak Reality, Wash. Post (Feb. 2, 2023, 7:05 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/02/‌memphis-tyre-nichols-police-reform/ [https://perma.cc/XUT6-R7B7] (finding only a “patchwork series of reforms . . . scattered across some of America’s thousands of local police departments” while a “comprehensive approach remains out of reach”); Denise Lavoie, Tatyana Monnay & Juliette Rihl, Some States Are Struggling to Implement Policing Reforms Passed After George Floyd’s Murder, PBS NewsHour (Oct. 31, 2022, 11:50 AM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/some-states-are-struggling-to-implement-policing-reforms-passed-after-george-floyds-murder [https://perma.cc/7KPH-PQ55] (reporting on difficulties with implementing limited reforms).Show More Still, other jurisdictions have done less to increase fairness and reduce harm, as the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols by the “Scorpion Unit” in Memphis suggests.5 5.Even calling a street policing team “Scorpion” when it is charged with making numerous traffic stops underscores the problem. See Steve Eder et al., Muscle Cars, Balaclavas and Fists: How the Scorpions Rolled Through Memphis, N.Y. Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/‌02/04/us/memphis-police-scorpion.html [https://perma.cc/T2KX-JA2J] (Mar. 1, 2023) (describing the aggressive tactics of the Scorpion squad).Show More The fervor for police reform that began after George Floyd’s murder itself has cooled, and the national narrative—accurate or otherwise—shifted to another wave of rising crime.6 6.See, e.g., David A. Graham, How Criminal-Justice Reform Fell Apart, Atlantic (May 26, 2022), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/george-floyd-anniversary-police-reform-violent-crime/630174/ [https://perma.cc/4Q4A-E33M] (describing how rising crime rattled Americans’ confidence in police reform).Show More Only the federal government has the capacity to protect constitutional rights in the face of local diffidence or recalcitrance. That is its job.

If we really care about addressing the many serious problems with policing, at least for some aspects it will be faster and more effective to adopt one set of changes rather than 50, 18,000, or 24,000. If money and might are needed, the federal government has them. Yet the federal government’s resources and heft too often have been badly deployed.

Here, we offer some needed direction for federal involvement in local policing. We do that for Congress, which all too rarely has exercised its authority to set national rules for policing, or even authorized the executive branch to do so. And we do it for the executive branch, which, even with the existing authority it has, could do much more. We elaborate upon the need for national standards in some areas of policing, the value of information collection, and the utility of technical assistance and training, and call for more thought about how the federal government’s enforcement power is utilized. We are critical of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, to the extent it stands in the way.

None of what we suggest here is rocket science, however, which raises the question why the federal government’s performance in police reform has been so anemic. For that reason, besides putting forward an affirmative agenda, we devote substantial time to four explanations for why the federal government has not done its job. We cannot repair them all, but we can shine a light on them, offer pushback, and—at times—antidotes.

The first is a lack of political will. Federal authorities could address almost everything we suggest here, even in the face of some problematic Supreme Court jurisprudence. They simply seem not to be able to muster the wherewithal to do so. After George Floyd’s murder, Congress considered important legislation.7 7.See, e.g., Alexandra Hutzler, What Is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act?, ABC News (Feb. 2, 2023, 1:49 PM), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-floyd-justice-policing-act/story?id=96851132 [https://perma.cc/43J5-WQZ4] (explaining legislation proposed in Congress after George Floyd’s murder that was designed to address police misconduct, racial profiling, and use of force).Show More It was not unproblematic, and it was not enough, but it would have been a notable start. It went nowhere.8 8.George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, H.R. 7120, 116th Cong.Show More

You could think Congress failed to act because the public lost interest. Congress inevitably follows swings in public opinion.9 9.SeePaul Burstein, American Public Opinion, Advocacy, and Policy in Congress 46–49 (2014) (examining numerous research methodologies and concluding that “we find repeatedly that opinion influences policy” at both the federal and state levels).Show More In 2020, the public favored police reform.10 10.See Pew Rsch. Ctr., Majority of Public Favors Giving Civilians the Power to Sue Police Officers for Misconduct 1 (2020), https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/‌sites/4/2020/07/PP_2020.07.09_Qualified-Immunity_FINAL.pdf [https://perma.cc/4U3U-CZTL] (finding that “[t]wo-thirds of Americans (66%) say that civilians need to have the power to sue police officers to hold them accountable for misconduct”); Steve Crabtree, Most Americans Say Policing Needs ‘Major Changes,’ Gallup (July 22, 2020), https://news.gallup.‌com/poll/315962/americans-say-policing-needs-major-changes.aspx [https://perma.cc/4NUJ-79F3] (finding that “58% of Americans say policing needs major changes”).Show More By 2022 they were concerned about crime.11 11.SeeJohn Gramlich, Violent Crime Is a Key Midterm Voting Issue, But What Does the Data Say?, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Oct. 31, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/‌31/violent-crime-is-a-key-midterm-voting-issue-but-what-does-the-data-say/ [https://perma.‌cc/GDU3-TBDS] (“Around six-in-ten registered voters (61%) say violent crime is very important when making their decision about who to vote for in this year’s congressional elections.”); Megan Brenan, Record-High 56% in U.S. Perceive Local Crime Has Increased, Gallup (Oct. 28, 2022), https://news.gallup.com/poll/404048/record-high-perceive-local-crime-increased.aspx [https://perma.cc/6EMF-PMGK] (“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live . . . is the highest . . . in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972.”).Show More In that case, one could argue Congress’s lack of political will reflected political responsiveness. But if that is what Congress was thinking, Congress was wrong. As the public recognizes, effective and accountable policing need not be in tension. Even as crime rates rose in 2021 and 2022, support for some forms of reform—and for the Black Lives Matter movement, for that matter—remained.12 12.See Justin McCarthy, Americans Remain Steadfast on Policing Reform Needs in 2022, Gallup (May 27, 2022), https://news.gallup.com/poll/393119/americans-remain-steadfast-policing-reform-needs-2022.aspx [https://perma.cc/8QQ4-YGW5] (“[H]alf of Americans (50%) support ‘major changes’ to policing in the U.S., and another 39% favor ‘minor changes.’”); Jennifer de Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus & Kabir Khanna, Most Americans Think Changes to Policing Are Necessary—CBS News Poll, CBS News (Feb. 5, 2023, 9:30 AM), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/policing-opinion-poll-2023-02-05/ [https://perma.cc/X65Y-7ZH6] (reporting that 47% of Americans support “major changes” to police practices, and 42% support “minor changes”); Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Kiley Hurst & Dana Braga, Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement Has Dropped Considerably From Its Peak in 2020, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (June 14, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/06/14/support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement-has-dropped-considerably-from-its-peak-in-2020/ [https://perma.cc/P4JZ-QX93] (finding that despite decline in support, Black Lives Matter retains the support of fifty-one percent of Americans).Show More Polling shows widespread, bipartisan, non-ideological support for using first responders rather than police to address many problems such as mental health.13 13.SeeNatasha Chisholm & Anika Dandekar, Majorities of Voters Support Criminal Charges for Those Involved in Tyre Nichols’ Killing and a Range of Police Reforms, Data for Progress (Mar. 2, 2023), https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2023/3/2/majorities-of-voters-support-criminal-charges-for-those-involved-in-tyre-nichols-killing-and-a-range-of-policing-reforms [https://perma.cc/WFS2-PTQR] (finding that Americans prefer the use of first responders for mental health issues by a fifty-three-point margin); Justine Coleman, Most Say Police Shouldn’t Be Primary Responders for Mental Health Crises: NAMI Poll, Hill (Nov. 15, 2021, 11:10 AM), https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/581556-majority-say-professionals-should-respond-to-mental-health-crises-instead/ [https://perma.cc/S7QW-WATB] (“[N]early 80 percent of respondents said mental health professionals, not police, should respond to mental health and suicide situations.”).Show More

Which brings us to the second explanation. Opponents of federal reform frequently claim that principles of constitutional federalism stand in the way.14 14.Much literature is devoted to parsing the federalism concerns raised as a result of congressional regulation of policing. See, e.g., W. Paul Koenig, Does Congress Abuse its Spending Clause Power by Attaching Conditions on the Receipt of Federal Law Enforcement Funds to a State’s Compliance with “Megan’s Law”?, 88 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 721, 741 (1998).Show More Some argue that it is improper for the federal government to tell local police how to do their job.15 15.See, e.g., 166 Cong. Rec. H2460 (daily ed. June 25, 2020) (statement of Rep. John H. Rutherford) (“We cannot be so eager to make major policing reforms on the Federal level that we overcorrect and prevent good officers on the street from being able to do their jobs.”); Kathleen F. Brickey, The Commerce Clause and Federalized Crime: A Tale of Two Thieves, 543 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 27, 38 (1996) (noting that the National Association of Attorneys General and the National Conference of State Legislatures “have urged Congress to recognize that primary responsibility for criminal law enforcement belongs to the states”); William Parlett, Criminal Law and Cooperative Federalism, 56 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1663, 1665–66 (2019) (describing how cooperative prosecution programs concentrate too much power in the hands of federal executive branch officials and rob state and local communities of their “voice”).Show More And others go further, questioning whether the federal government has power under the Constitution to set the rules for policing.16 16.See, e.g., Manu Raju, Clare Foran & Ted Barrett, GOP and Democrats Clash Over Police Reform in Congress as Pressure for Action Mounts, CNN (June 16, 2020, 8:28 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/politics/police-reform-senate-republicans/index.html [https://perma.cc/KX7M-ZDNM] (reporting then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to federal police reform efforts as “overreach” and an attempt to “federalize all of these issues”); see also Richard A. Epstein, The Supreme Court, 1987 Term—Foreword: Unconstitutional Conditions, State Power, and the Limits of Consent, 102 Harv. L. Rev. 4, 45–46, 104 (1988) (raising concerns that Congress will use its spending powers to subvert the Twenty-First Amendment and Tenth Amendment such that “a presumption of distrust should attach to all government action”).Show More

As this Article makes clear, these views about federalism’s limits on federal power are wrong. Under our federal system, and the Supreme Court’s somewhat baroque federalism doctrine, Congress may have to choose with some care the right font of power to meet the particular problem. For racial discrimination and use of force, Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment should suffice. For surveillance technologies, resorting to the Commerce Clause in most cases would do the trick. Some approaches to regulating policing may escape Congress’s grasp, but for the most part, Congress has ample constitutional power to step in where it would be helpful to do so. And, of course, national standards and approaches do not eliminate state variation; they simply provide a floor.

The best evidence that federalism-based objections have little to support them is that the federal government already intervenes in deeply consequential ways to shape policing. It empowers local officers by deputizing them to federal ends. It pushes local agencies to pursue national public safety priorities, whether they be street-level drug enforcement, gun crime, or something else.17 17.See Roger J. Miner, The Consequences of Federalizing Criminal Law, 4 Crim. Just.16, 18 (1989) (describing expansion of federal jurisdiction to crimes including robbery, extortion, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking); Sara Sun Beale, Federalizing Crime: Assessing the Impact on the Federal Courts, 543 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 39, 42 (1996) (“Congress enacted a series of federal crimes that targeted violence against private individuals . . . to assert jurisdiction over an increasingly broad range of conduct clearly within the traditional police powers of the states.”); Partlett, supra note 15, at 1663 (“Cooperative federalism is now commonplace in the prosecution of street-level drug and gun crime . . . , [which] . . . weakens the ability of states to function as political entities that can hold their law enforcement officers accountable in an area of traditional state police power.”).Show More It provides local police with militarized equipment and tools for surveillance and incorporates their work into federal databases.18 18.See Allison McCartney, Paul Murray & Mira Rojanasakul, After Pouring Billions into Militarization of U.S. Cops, Congress Weighs Limits, Bloomberg (July 1, 2020), https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-police-military-equipment/ [https://perma.cc/‌C7V9-JUNF]; Jay Stanley & Bennett Stein, FOIA Documents Reveal Massive DEA Program to Record Americans’ Whereabouts with License Plate Readers, ACLU, https://www.aclu.org‌/news/smart-justice/foia-documents-reveal-massive-dea-program-record-americans-whereab‌outs-license [https://perma.cc/ZZ8D-UKDT] (Jan. 28, 2015) (explaining that the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) partners with state and local law enforcement agencies around the country to collect license plate location data for its database).Show More It trains officers to engage in deleterious practices like widespread pretextual traffic stops.19 19.See Farhang Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing, 76 Stan. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024) (manuscript at 1–2) [hereinafter Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing], https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4369747 [https://perma.cc/5FYF-MZ‌FW].Show More The federal government meddles aplenty in local law enforcement without much objection from those who worry aloud about the federal government interfering in local policing. It seems only to rouse disagreement if the suggestion is the federal government should work to make policing more responsive to policed communities, more equitable, and less harmful. That one-way ratchet rests on an implausible account of “Our Federalism.”20 20.Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 44 (1971) (“[T]he notion of ‘comity,’ that is, a proper respect for state functions, a recognition of the fact that the entire country is made up of a Union of separate state governments, and a continuance of the belief that the National Government will fare best if the States and their institutions are left free to perform their separate functions in their separate ways . . . is referred to by many as ‘Our Federalism’ . . . .”).Show More

The federal government’s already ample role in local policing highlights the third explanation for why it has not done what is needed to transform policing for the better, which is that some parts of the federal government themselves are resistant to change—to the point that the federal government is complicit in many of policing’s problems. When it comes to policing, there is a deep tension within the federal government as to what its role should be. On one hand, it has an obligation to protect civil rights and racial equality, a special role in preserving privacy, and the sole power to promote values such as democratic accountability and transparency at a national level. Some elements of the federal government pursue these ends, such as the Civil Rights Division and its Special Litigation Section.21 21.See Special Litigation Section, U.S. Dep’t of Just.: C.R. Div., https://www.justice.gov/‌crt/special-litigation-section [https://perma.cc/268W-7983] (last visited Sept. 24, 2023).Show More On the other hand, the federal government operates an enormous law enforcement apparatus, with dozens of agencies that depend on state and local cooperation.22 22.See Law Enforcement, Bureau of Just. Stats. (Feb. 18, 2021), https:/bjs.ojp.gov/topics/‌law-enforcement#recent-faqs-how-many-full-time-federal-law-enforcement [https://perma.c‌c/NJQ7-WNLX] (estimating that in 2020, there were 137,000 full-time federal law enforcement officers); see also Lisa M. Seghetti, Cong. Rsch. Serv., RL32270, Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement 3 (2009), https:/www.everycrsreport.com/files/20090311_RL32270_a7bbe8763684424b48f0d4b1d61‌c92412ac50d0c.pdf [https://perma.cc/N5AR-EBMB] (providing examples of cooperation between federal and local law enforcement on immigration); Michael M. Hethmon, The Chimera and the Cop: Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law, 8 UDC/DCSL L. Rev. 83, 139 (2004) (detailing high level of federal-local law enforcement cooperation).Show More That law enforcement apparatus does not seem particularly reform-minded; indeed, some federal agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are themselves particularly concerning.23 23.See, e.g., US Records Show Physical, Sexual Abuse at Border, Hum. Rts. Watch (Oct. 21, 2021, 7:00 AM), https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/21/us-records-show-physical-sexua‌l-abuse-border [https://perma.cc/Z97M-W5F5] (reporting on abuse by Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials); Stan Wilson, Daniel Chong, Forgotten in DEA Cell, Settles Suit for $4.1 Million, CNN (Aug. 1, 2013, 7:38 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/30/justice/california-dea-settle‌ment/ [https://perma.cc/B9XE-EP9P] (finding that DEA agents detained a student in a windowless cell with no food or water for five days).Show More Federal law enforcement has too often pursued its public safety priorities, such as the wars on crime and terrorism, and federal immigration enforcement, with little attention to the harms it causes. In short, while some parts of the federal government encourage reform, other parts of the federal government work against it.

The federal government—and many federal agencies—bear responsibility for many of the harms of policing. The federally driven War on Drugs garnered little in the way of success while shredding constitutional liberties and contributing to mass incarceration.24 24.See Aaron Morrison, 50-Year War on Drugs Imprisoned Millions of Black Americans, PBS NewsHour (July 26, 2021, 12:55 PM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/50-year-war-on-drugs-imprisoned-millions-of-black-americans [https://perma.cc/DZV2-H4DR] (noting that the federal government’s policies pursuant to the War on Drugs resulted in the mass incarceration of millions of Americans and undermined their access to voting and gun rights).Show More Today, asset forfeiture drives unjustifiable policing practices, yet federal agencies have done little to curtail it and much to promote it.25 25.See Jennifer McDonald & Dick M. Carpenter II, Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair: Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims, Inst. for Just. (Sept. 28, 2021), https://ij.org/report/‌frustrating-corrupt-unfair/ [https://perma.cc/US2N-2YLE] (“Most states across the country, not to mention the federal government, continue to enforce civil forfeiture laws that offer few due process protections and promote policing for profit.”).Show More Tyre Nichols’s murder brought widespread public attention to the problem of pretextual traffic stops, but the federal government has and continues to promote them, causing harm and racial disparities.26 26.See generally Farhang Heydari, Rethinking Federal Inducement of Pretext Stops, 2024 Wis. L. Rev. (forthcoming) [hereinafter Heydari, Rethinking Federal Inducement of Pretext Stops] (cataloguing the ways in which federal agencies promote pretextual traffic stops); Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing, supra note 19 (calling attention to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Agency as a proponent of pretextual traffic stops).Show More The militarization of domestic policing is deeply troubling in a free society, and the federal government has driven that. Technology-driven surveillance is itself a threat to democracy and individual rights, and very much on the rise, and yet again federal agencies promote, supply, and fund these technologies with few guardrails on their use.27 27.See Chris Baumohl, Two Years In, COVID-19 Relief Money Fueling Rise of Police Surveillance, Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr. (Mar. 9, 2023), https://epic.org/two-years-in-covid-19-relie‌f-money-fueling-rise-of-police-surveillance/ [https://perma.cc/5VLG-Z5RM] (explaining that the expansion of surveillance technologies results from “federal funding, which lowers the cost of acquisition at the state and local level”).Show More One could go on and on.

To be clear, our claim here assuredly is not that the federal government should not help state and local governments in crime fighting. Small communities need help to be effective in addressing crime, all departments benefit from federal expertise about what works, and there are elements of crime that are both national and transnational. Each of these provides a classic justification for federal involvement in primarily local enterprises. It may well be warranted beyond that. Our claim, rather, is that the federal government must be concerned both with ensuring public safety from crime and ensuring public safety from the harms of policing. The simple fact is that policing is unlikely to be effective over time unless it also is fair, harm-minimizing, and accountable—and even if it could remain unaccountable, that simply is inconsistent with this nation’s broader democratic values. The War on Drugs and federally supported asset forfeiture are indicative of a distorted sense of balance, if not one altogether missing.

Which brings us to the final explanation, and one on which we have a great deal to say, which is that the federal government has over-relied on an approach to addressing the harms of policing that rests in conditions on grants and civil rights enforcement, while undervaluing other approaches such as standard setting and regulation, or even ensuring that the federal government’s policing strategy is internally coherent. Do not get us wrong—enforcement is essential to ensuring the rules of the road obtain adherence. But what the federal government has done for too long is not set out the rules of the road, relying instead on the minimalist notion of policing regulation set out in the Supreme Court’s constitutional jurisprudence.28 28.But see Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. 32945, 32961 (May 25, 2022) (requiring the Attorney General to develop standards for accreditation of police departments by independent credentialing agencies and to determine if discretionary grants should depend on accreditation).Show More Yet, as every first-year law student learns, the Constitution is a floor; it indicates what must be done, but often lacks any notion of aspiration or best practices.

The federal government’s lackluster role in improving policing is in part a result of its piecemeal, reactive approach. When bad things in policing happen, for example, the Civil Rights Division prosecutes individual officers. Or it investigates and sues some deeply troubled departments.29 29.See C.R. Div., U.S. Dep’t of Just., The Civil Rights Division’s Pattern and Practice Police Reform Work: 1994–Present, at 3 (2017) [hereinafter C.R. Div., Police Reform Work: 1994–Present], https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/922421/download [https://perma.cc/LQN3-RME7] (describing the work of the Special Litigation Section).Show More Enforcement is important, though it could be done more strategically.30 30.See Rachel A. Harmon, Promoting Civil Rights Through Proactive Policing Reform, 62 Stan. L. Rev. 1, 22, 26–27, 57–58 (2009) [hereinafter Harmon, Promoting Civil Rights] (arguing that the use of consent decrees, which frequently include certain requirements, such as training and policies on use of force, can incentivize other agencies to adopt such reforms); Allison T. Chappell, Consent Decrees and Police Reform: A Piece of the Puzzle or a Puzzling Policy, 16 Criminology & Pub. Pol’y 571, 572 (2017) (finding that consent decrees can lead to policy change because police departments seek to avoid DOJ scrutiny).Show More But litigating our way out of policing’s problems is a doomed enterprise. The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) only can target a few troubled agencies or officers. The federal government also encourages some reform through grant programs and their conditions. But these efforts lack coherence, consistency, and comprehensiveness. They do far less than they ought.

Simply put, the federal government in the main has failed to set rules and standards that local policing agencies either must meet, or at least should aspire to meet.31 31.President Biden’s Executive Order (“EO”) has a provision fostering accreditation of policing agencies, which could be the beginning of standard setting, although those accreditation standards as adopted by DOJ were insufficiently demanding. See infra notes 354–55 and accompanying text.Show More It has not collected or even made possible uniformity in data so that we can identify problems in local policing, and their solutions. If anything became clear in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd—and should have been clear long before—it is that policing needs to be regulated with clear front-end rules, or at least provided with coherent guidance. As we indicated, states have taken up some of the work, but in piecemeal fashion. The federal government could and should—and indeed must—do more to bring needed cohesion and real progress.

There is no gainsaying that President Biden’s May 2022 Executive Order (“EO”) on policing was a step in the right direction.32 32.Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. 32945 (May 25, 2022).Show More It announced some efforts to bring federal agencies into line with best practices, some leadership in promoting nationwide accountability, and some effort to identify and promote best practices for local police departments. Even if radically incomplete, it was the most the nation ever has seen aspirationally about addressing real harms in policing. But orders are not action: a reform-oriented Trump order on policing had almost no effect.33 33.See Jon Schuppe, Trump Says His Policing Order Is a ‘Big Step.’ Activists Call It ‘Breadcrumbs.’, NBC News (June 17, 2020, 10:35 AM), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-says-his-policing-order-big-step-activists-call-it-n1231269 [https://perma.cc/PR‌9G-ZQYR] (noting that Trump’s executive order concerning policing after George Floyd’s murder was “paltry”).Show More Only time will tell if the Biden Executive Order accomplishes what it set out to do.34 34.One year in, the federal government released a long list of the actions it had taken, and we do not mean in any way to minimize their import. See Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Highlights Accomplishments on Anniversary of Historic Executive Order to Advance Effective, Accountable Policing and Strengthen Public Safety, White House (May 25, 2023), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-highlights-accomplishments-on-anniversary-of-historic-executive-order-to-advance-effective-accountable-policing-and-strengthen-public-safety/ [https://perma.cc/U4HM-WNPR] (highlighting actions taken under EO 14,074, including the creation of the “National Law Enforcement Accountability Database,” the adoption of new federal law enforcement use of force policies, and grants to local law enforcement “to adopt and implement best practices” in policing). Every step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. Still, much of that list itself was a down payment on enormous work yet to be done.Show More And even if it does—there is plenty more to be done, as the EO itself acknowledges.35 35.See Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. at 32945.Show More

This Article argues the federal government can and should foster change in policing and provides guidance as to what the federal government should do. The federal government has ample constitutional power to address the problems of local policing—sometimes acting along and sometimes in collaboration with state and local authorities. We at times suggest a regulatory approach, best achieved by setting rules and standards that guide local policing. We show how, when regulation would be inappropriate or ineffective, the federal government should use its other powers to achieve change. We strongly urge the federal government to adopt a coherent approach to policing—that, above all else, the federal government should stop using the power that it has in deleterious ways, exacerbating the problems of local policing even while claiming a desire to address them.

Part I of this Article is addressed to the question of need—where and why is federal intervention in local policing needed, and what should that federal role look like? It frames up three paradigmatic areas in which there is widespread consensus policing needs to change: excessive force by the police, racial discrimination in policing, and the use of surveillance technologies. It shows that state and local governments often are incapable of, or unwilling to, address the problems alone, thereby highlighting the vital role the federal government has to play. And it begins an exploration of what it is the federal government should do.

Part II turns to regulation and the role Congress should play in requiring better local policing. It sets out a minimal agenda for Congress in the three paradigmatic problem areas. But one cannot discuss congressional action without discussing constitutional power as well, thus implicating the Supreme Court. Part II acknowledges that Supreme Court precedent poses challenges to the exercise of federal power and critiques the doctrine accordingly. Still, it demonstrates that Congress has more than ample power to address what needs to be done. It explains how Congress could use this power to mitigate those problems of excessive force, undue surveillance, and racial injustice in policing.

Part III turns to the executive branch. If Congress does not act, or even if it does, the executive branch could do much with its discretion to set a national agenda, to enforce civil rights law, to implement federal programs, and to run federal law enforcement agencies to make policing better. The executive branch needs to promote a consistent, coherent approach to policing, one that supports policing that is fair, harm minimizing, and accountable as well as effective. But it also needs to stop doing things that make policing less equitable, less effective, and more harmful. Part III lays all this out.

The federal government is not going to fix everything that needs to be remedied around policing. But it could act to do less harm and reform policing substantially, even as it promotes effective efforts to address crime. It is time for federal officials at the legislative and executive level to take seriously their power and responsibility to address the harms of local policing.

  1.  These numbers obviously are approximations and vary from year to year. See Press Release, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau Reports There Are 89,004 Local Governments in the United States (Aug. 30, 2012), https://www.census.gov/newsroom/‌releases/archives/governments/cb12-161.html [https://perma.cc/HJH6-QHV7] (number of cities and counties in 2012 Census); Duren Banks, Joshua Hendrix, Matthew Hickman & Tracey Kyckelhahn, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., National Sources of Law Enforcement Employment Data 1 (2016), https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsleed.pdf [https://perma.cc/6ZJW-8RCF] (reporting that there are about 18,000 police departments). ↑
  2.  See Sean E. Goodison, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., Local Police Departments Personnel, 2020, at 3 (2022) [hereinafter Goodison, Local Police Departments Personnel], https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/lpdp20.pdf [https://perma.‌cc/4MUQ-8KHV]; Connor Brooks, Bureau of Just. Stats., U.S. Dep’t of Just., Sheriffs’ Offices Personnel, 2020, at 3 (2022), https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/‌document/sop20.pdf [https://perma.cc/A5NL-X8WY]. Maria Ponomarenko has provided one of the best accounts of the challenges of small agencies. See generally Maria Ponomarenko, The Small Agency Problem in American Policing, 98 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4537989 [https://perma.cc/J3E3-K9‌CN]. ↑
  3.  See, e.g., Jennifer Brown & Jesse Paul, Colorado Governor Signs Sweeping Police Accountability Bill into Law. Here’s How It Will Change Law Enforcement., Colo. Sun (June 19, 2020, 9:53 AM), https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/19/colorado-police-accountability-bill-becomes-law/ [https://perma.cc/JNV4-9KM8]; Michael Levenson & Bryan Pietsch, Maryland Passes Sweeping Police Reform Legislation, N.Y. Times (Apr. 10, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/maryland-police-reform.html [https://perma.cc/JY‌8W-ZL89]; Ned Oliver, Police Reforms Go into Effect in Virginia, Va. Mercury (Mar. 2, 2021, 12:05 AM), https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog-va/police-reforms-go-into-effect-in-virginia/ [https://perma.cc/V82Q-GGJK]. ↑
  4.  See, e.g., Liz Crampton, States Passed 243 Policing Bills—and Left Activists Wanting, Politico (May 26, 2021, 4:30 AM), https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/26/states-policing-bills-490850 [https://perma.cc/D2CW-NHCN] (reporting activist frustration regarding limited reforms after George Floyd’s murder); Mark Berman & David Nakamura, From George Floyd to Tyre Nichols, Pleas for Police Reform Meet Bleak Reality, Wash. Post (Feb. 2, 2023, 7:05 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/02/‌memphis-tyre-nichols-police-reform/ [https://perma.cc/XUT6-R7B7] (finding only a “patchwork series of reforms . . . scattered across some of America’s thousands of local police departments” while a “comprehensive approach remains out of reach”); Denise Lavoie, Tatyana Monnay & Juliette Rihl, Some States Are Struggling to Implement Policing Reforms Passed After George Floyd’s Murder, PBS NewsHour (Oct. 31, 2022, 11:50 AM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/some-states-are-struggling-to-implement-policing-reforms-passed-after-george-floyds-murder [https://perma.cc/7KPH-PQ55] (reporting on difficulties with implementing limited reforms). ↑
  5.  Even calling a street policing team “Scorpion” when it is charged with making numerous traffic stops underscores the problem. See Steve Eder et al., Muscle Cars, Balaclavas and Fists: How the Scorpions Rolled Through Memphis, N.Y. Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/‌02/04/us/memphis-police-scorpion.html [https://perma.cc/T2KX-JA2J] (Mar. 1, 2023) (describing the aggressive tactics of the Scorpion squad). ↑
  6.  See, e.g., David A. Graham, How Criminal-Justice Reform Fell Apart, Atlantic (May 26, 2022), https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/george-floyd-anniversary-police-reform-violent-crime/630174/ [https://perma.cc/4Q4A-E33M] (describing how rising crime rattled Americans’ confidence in police reform). ↑
  7.  See, e.g., Alexandra Hutzler, What Is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act?, ABC News (Feb. 2, 2023, 1:49 PM), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-floyd-justice-policing-act/story?id=96851132 [https://perma.cc/43J5-WQZ4] (explaining legislation proposed in Congress after George Floyd’s murder that was designed to address police misconduct, racial profiling, and use of force). ↑
  8.  George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, H.R. 7120, 116th Cong. ↑
  9.  See Paul Burstein, American Public Opinion, Advocacy, and Policy in Congress 46–49 (2014) (examining numerous research methodologies and concluding that “we find repeatedly that opinion influences policy” at both the federal and state levels). ↑
  10.  See Pew Rsch. Ctr., Majority of Public Favors Giving Civilians the Power to Sue Police Officers for Misconduct 1 (2020), https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/‌sites/4/2020/07/PP_2020.07.09_Qualified-Immunity_FINAL.pdf [https://perma.cc/4U3U-CZTL] (finding that “[t]wo-thirds of Americans (66%) say that civilians need to have the power to sue police officers to hold them accountable for misconduct”); Steve Crabtree, Most Americans Say Policing Needs ‘Major Changes,’ Gallup (July 22, 2020), https://news.gallup.‌com/poll/315962/americans-say-policing-needs-major-changes.aspx [https://perma.cc/4NUJ-79F3] (finding that “58% of Americans say policing needs major changes”). ↑
  11.  See John Gramlich, Violent Crime Is a Key Midterm Voting Issue, But What Does the Data Say?, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Oct. 31, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/‌31/violent-crime-is-a-key-midterm-voting-issue-but-what-does-the-data-say/ [https://perma.‌cc/GDU3-TBDS] (“Around six-in-ten registered voters (61%) say violent crime is very important when making their decision about who to vote for in this year’s congressional elections.”); Megan Brenan, Record-High 56% in U.S. Perceive Local Crime Has Increased, Gallup (Oct. 28, 2022), https://news.gallup.com/poll/404048/record-high-perceive-local-crime-increased.aspx [https://perma.cc/6EMF-PMGK] (“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live . . . is the highest . . . in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972.”). ↑
  12.  See Justin McCarthy, Americans Remain Steadfast on Policing Reform Needs in 2022, Gallup (May 27, 2022), https://news.gallup.com/poll/393119/americans-remain-steadfast-policing-reform-needs-2022.aspx [https://perma.cc/8QQ4-YGW5] (“[H]alf of Americans (50%) support ‘major changes’ to policing in the U.S., and another 39% favor ‘minor changes.’”); Jennifer de Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus & Kabir Khanna, Most Americans Think Changes to Policing Are Necessary—CBS News Poll, CBS News (Feb. 5, 2023, 9:30 AM), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/policing-opinion-poll-2023-02-05/ [https://perma.cc/X65Y-7ZH6] (reporting that 47% of Americans support “major changes” to police practices, and 42% support “minor changes”); Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Kiley Hurst & Dana Braga, Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement Has Dropped Considerably From Its Peak in 2020, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (June 14, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/06/14/support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement-has-dropped-considerably-from-its-peak-in-2020/ [https://perma.cc/P4JZ-QX93] (finding that despite decline in support, Black Lives Matter retains the support of fifty-one percent of Americans). ↑
  13.  See Natasha Chisholm & Anika Dandekar, Majorities of Voters Support Criminal Charges for Those Involved in Tyre Nichols’ Killing and a Range of Police Reforms, Data for Progress (Mar. 2, 2023), https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2023/3/2/majorities-of-voters-support-criminal-charges-for-those-involved-in-tyre-nichols-killing-and-a-range-of-policing-reforms [https://perma.cc/WFS2-PTQR] (finding that Americans prefer the use of first responders for mental health issues by a fifty-three-point margin); Justine Coleman, Most Say Police Shouldn’t Be Primary Responders for Mental Health Crises: NAMI Poll, Hill (Nov. 15, 2021, 11:10 AM), https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/581556-majority-say-professionals-should-respond-to-mental-health-crises-instead/ [https://perma.cc/S7QW-WATB] (“[N]early 80 percent of respondents said mental health professionals, not police, should respond to mental health and suicide situations.”). ↑
  14.  Much literature is devoted to parsing the federalism concerns raised as a result of congressional regulation of policing. See, e.g., W. Paul Koenig, Does Congress Abuse its Spending Clause Power by Attaching Conditions on the Receipt of Federal Law Enforcement Funds to a State’s Compliance with “Megan’s Law”?, 88 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 721, 741 (1998). ↑
  15.  See, e.g., 166 Cong. Rec. H2460 (daily ed. June 25, 2020) (statement of Rep. John H. Rutherford) (“We cannot be so eager to make major policing reforms on the Federal level that we overcorrect and prevent good officers on the street from being able to do their jobs.”); Kathleen F. Brickey, The Commerce Clause and Federalized Crime: A Tale of Two Thieves, 543 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 27, 38 (1996) (noting that the National Association of Attorneys General and the National Conference of State Legislatures “have urged Congress to recognize that primary responsibility for criminal law enforcement belongs to the states”); William Parlett, Criminal Law and Cooperative Federalism, 56 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1663, 1665–66 (2019) (describing how cooperative prosecution programs concentrate too much power in the hands of federal executive branch officials and rob state and local communities of their “voice”). ↑
  16.  See, e.g., Manu Raju, Clare Foran & Ted Barrett, GOP and Democrats Clash Over Police Reform in Congress as Pressure for Action Mounts, CNN (June 16, 2020, 8:28 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/politics/police-reform-senate-republicans/index.html [https://perma.cc/KX7M-ZDNM] (reporting then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to federal police reform efforts as “overreach” and an attempt to “federalize all of these issues”); see also Richard A. Epstein, The Supreme Court, 1987 Term—Foreword: Unconstitutional Conditions, State Power, and the Limits of Consent, 102 Harv. L. Rev. 4, 45–46, 104 (1988) (raising concerns that Congress will use its spending powers to subvert the Twenty-First Amendment and Tenth Amendment such that “a presumption of distrust should attach to all government action”). ↑
  17.  See Roger J. Miner, The Consequences of Federalizing Criminal Law, 4 Crim. Just. 16, 18 (1989) (describing expansion of federal jurisdiction to crimes including robbery, extortion, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking); Sara Sun Beale, Federalizing Crime: Assessing the Impact on the Federal Courts, 543 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 39, 42 (1996) (“Congress enacted a series of federal crimes that targeted violence against private individuals . . . to assert jurisdiction over an increasingly broad range of conduct clearly within the traditional police powers of the states.”); Partlett, supra note 15, at 1663 (“Cooperative federalism is now commonplace in the prosecution of street-level drug and gun crime . . . , [which] . . . weakens the ability of states to function as political entities that can hold their law enforcement officers accountable in an area of traditional state police power.”). ↑
  18.  See Allison McCartney, Paul Murray & Mira Rojanasakul, After Pouring Billions into Militarization of U.S. Cops, Congress Weighs Limits, Bloomberg (July 1, 2020), https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-police-military-equipment/ [https://perma.cc/‌C7V9-JUNF]; Jay Stanley & Bennett Stein, FOIA Documents Reveal Massive DEA Program to Record Americans’ Whereabouts with License Plate Readers, ACLU, https://www.aclu.org‌/news/smart-justice/foia-documents-reveal-massive-dea-program-record-americans-whereab‌outs-license [https://perma.cc/ZZ8D-UKDT] (Jan. 28, 2015) (explaining that the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) partners with state and local law enforcement agencies around the country to collect license plate location data for its database). ↑
  19.  See Farhang Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing, 76 Stan. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024) (manuscript at 1–2) [hereinafter Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing], https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4369747 [https://perma.cc/5FYF-MZ‌FW]. ↑
  20.  Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 44 (1971) (“[T]he notion of ‘comity,’ that is, a proper respect for state functions, a recognition of the fact that the entire country is made up of a Union of separate state governments, and a continuance of the belief that the National Government will fare best if the States and their institutions are left free to perform their separate functions in their separate ways . . . is referred to by many as ‘Our Federalism’ . . . .”). ↑
  21.  See Special Litigation Section, U.S. Dep’t of Just.: C.R. Div., https://www.justice.gov/‌crt/special-litigation-section [https://perma.cc/268W-7983] (last visited Sept. 24, 2023). ↑
  22.  See Law Enforcement, Bureau of Just. Stats. (Feb. 18, 2021), https:/bjs.ojp.gov/topics/‌law-enforcement#recent-faqs-how-many-full-time-federal-law-enforcement [https://perma.c‌c/NJQ7-WNLX] (estimating that in 2020, there were 137,000 full-time federal law enforcement officers); see also Lisa M. Seghetti, Cong. Rsch. Serv., RL32270, Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement 3 (2009), https:/www.everycrsreport.com/files/20090311_RL32270_a7bbe8763684424b48f0d4b1d61‌c92412ac50d0c.pdf [https://perma.cc/N5AR-EBMB] (providing examples of cooperation between federal and local law enforcement on immigration); Michael M. Hethmon, The Chimera and the Cop: Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law, 8 UDC/DCSL L. Rev. 83, 139 (2004) (detailing high level of federal-local law enforcement cooperation). ↑
  23.  See, e.g., US Records Show Physical, Sexual Abuse at Border, Hum. Rts. Watch (Oct. 21, 2021, 7:00 AM), https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/21/us-records-show-physical-sexua‌l-abuse-border [https://perma.cc/Z97M-W5F5] (reporting on abuse by Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials); Stan Wilson, Daniel Chong, Forgotten in DEA Cell, Settles Suit for $4.1 Million, CNN (Aug. 1, 2013, 7:38 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/30/justice/california-dea-settle‌ment/ [https://perma.cc/B9XE-EP9P] (finding that DEA agents detained a student in a windowless cell with no food or water for five days). ↑
  24.  See Aaron Morrison, 50-Year War on Drugs Imprisoned Millions of Black Americans, PBS NewsHour (July 26, 2021, 12:55 PM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/50-year-war-on-drugs-imprisoned-millions-of-black-americans [https://perma.cc/DZV2-H4DR] (noting that the federal government’s policies pursuant to the War on Drugs resulted in the mass incarceration of millions of Americans and undermined their access to voting and gun rights). ↑
  25.  See Jennifer McDonald & Dick M. Carpenter II, Frustrating, Corrupt, Unfair: Civil Forfeiture in the Words of Its Victims, Inst. for Just. (Sept. 28, 2021), https://ij.org/report/‌frustrating-corrupt-unfair/ [https://perma.cc/US2N-2YLE] (“Most states across the country, not to mention the federal government, continue to enforce civil forfeiture laws that offer few due process protections and promote policing for profit.”). ↑
  26.  See generally Farhang Heydari, Rethinking Federal Inducement of Pretext Stops, 2024 Wis. L. Rev. (forthcoming) [hereinafter Heydari, Rethinking Federal Inducement of Pretext Stops] (cataloguing the ways in which federal agencies promote pretextual traffic stops); Heydari, The Invisible Driver of Policing, supra note 19 (calling attention to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Agency as a proponent of pretextual traffic stops). ↑
  27.  See Chris Baumohl, Two Years In, COVID-19 Relief Money Fueling Rise of Police Surveillance, Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr. (Mar. 9, 2023), https://epic.org/two-years-in-covid-19-relie‌f-money-fueling-rise-of-police-surveillance/ [https://perma.cc/5VLG-Z5RM] (explaining that the expansion of surveillance technologies results from “federal funding, which lowers the cost of acquisition at the state and local level”). ↑
  28.  But see Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. 32945, 32961 (May 25, 2022) (requiring the Attorney General to develop standards for accreditation of police departments by independent credentialing agencies and to determine if discretionary grants should depend on accreditation). ↑
  29.  See C.R. Div., U.S. Dep’t of Just., The Civil Rights Division’s Pattern and Practice Police Reform Work: 1994–Present, at 3 (2017) [hereinafter C.R. Div., Police Reform Work: 1994–Present], https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/922421/download [https://perma.cc/LQN3-RME7] (describing the work of the Special Litigation Section). ↑
  30.  See Rachel A. Harmon, Promoting Civil Rights Through Proactive Policing Reform, 62 Stan. L. Rev. 1, 22, 26–27, 57–58 (2009) [hereinafter Harmon, Promoting Civil Rights] (arguing that the use of consent decrees, which frequently include certain requirements, such as training and policies on use of force, can incentivize other agencies to adopt such reforms); Allison T. Chappell, Consent Decrees and Police Reform: A Piece of the Puzzle or a Puzzling Policy, 16 Criminology & Pub. Pol’y 571, 572 (2017) (finding that consent decrees can lead to policy change because police departments seek to avoid DOJ scrutiny). ↑
  31.  President Biden’s Executive Order (“EO”) has a provision fostering accreditation of policing agencies, which could be the beginning of standard setting, although those accreditation standards as adopted by DOJ were insufficiently demanding. See infra notes 354–55 and accompanying text. ↑
  32.  Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. 32945 (May 25, 2022). ↑
  33.  See Jon Schuppe, Trump Says His Policing Order Is a ‘Big Step.’ Activists Call It ‘Breadcrumbs.’, NBC News (June 17, 2020, 10:35 AM), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-says-his-policing-order-big-step-activists-call-it-n1231269 [https://perma.cc/PR‌9G-ZQYR] (noting that Trump’s executive order concerning policing after George Floyd’s murder was “paltry”). ↑
  34.  One year in, the federal government released a long list of the actions it had taken, and we do not mean in any way to minimize their import. See Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Highlights Accomplishments on Anniversary of Historic Executive Order to Advance Effective, Accountable Policing and Strengthen Public Safety, White House (May 25, 2023), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/25/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-highlights-accomplishments-on-anniversary-of-historic-executive-order-to-advance-effective-accountable-policing-and-strengthen-public-safety/ [https://perma.cc/U4HM-WNPR] (highlighting actions taken under EO 14,074, including the creation of the “National Law Enforcement Accountability Database,” the adoption of new federal law enforcement use of force policies, and grants to local law enforcement “to adopt and implement best practices” in policing). Every step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. Still, much of that list itself was a down payment on enormous work yet to be done. ↑

  35.  See Exec. Order No. 14,074, 87 Fed. Reg. at 32945. ↑

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