Jon Kyl: “I join Senators Alexander and Pryor in introducing the Federal Consent Decree Fairness Act. This important legislation…”

“I join Senators Alexander and Pryor in introducing the Federal Consent Decree Fairness Act. This important legislation, by placing reasonable limits on the duration of judicial consent decrees, will help restore democratic control over State and local institutions. Lawsuits against public schools, welfare agencies, and other State and local government agencies and programs often end in judicial consent decrees. Consent decrees are binding, legal agreements between plaintiffs and institutions specifying how a particular problem will be remedied. Two years ago, two professors at the New York Law School, Ross Sandler and David Schoenbrod, published an important book about the effect of consent decrees on our society: Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government. The professors' book describes how unelected and unaccountable judges and attorneys control many State and local institutions by imposing rigid plans through consent decrees and how these decrees prevent newly elected officials from altering policies in response to the changing wishes of voters. These decrees allow plaintiffs' lawyers and judges to assume the power to make policy and dictate in detail what shall constitute compliance with the decree. They reflect a multitude of motives and often are based on considerations of the moment, yet they can bind public institutions for decades.”