By Evan Perez and Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration is putting a halt to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the Justice Department found a pattern of misconduct, according to a memo issued Wednesday.

“The new administration may wish to reconsider settlements and consent decrees negotiated and approved by the prior administration,” said the memo issued by acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle.

Mizelle ordered the Justice Department’s civil rights division to “not execute or finalize any settlements or consent decrees approved prior to January 20, 2025, 12:00pm.” The memo also orders civil rights lawyers to notify Mizelle of any settlements or consent decrees finalized in the past 90 days.

The move was widely anticipated with the change of administrations and has the potential to upend police reform efforts in Minneapolis, and Louisville, Kentucky, which were announced by the Justice Department in the closing weeks of the Biden administration.

The consent decree agreements with both cities are awaiting final approval by judges in those states, meaning that the Trump administration’s Justice Department could seek to scuttle the deals.

A separate Wednesday memo from Mizelle ordered the civil rights attorneys to not “file any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest” until further notice. It’s common for new administrations to review pending litigation to try to determine whether it aligns with their policy positions. But current and former Justice officials say new administrations usually seek to conduct reviews on a case-by-case basis.

President Donald Trump and Republican allies have long criticized the use of court-ordered consent decrees to enforce police reform efforts.

During his campaign, Trump vowed to “back the blue,” a slogan meant to show support for police even when officers are accused of misconduct or civil rights violations. In Trump’s first administration, the Justice Department similarly sought to scuttle police consent decrees.

The Louisville decree was reached in mid-December after a yearslong investigation into the city’s police department following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020.

Among the proposed reforms outlined in the agreement was a requirement that Louisville police officers “use appropriate de-escalation techniques and attempt to resolve incidents without force when possible, and use force in a manner that is reasonable, necessary, and proportional to the threat presented.”

It also mandated the department investigates “allegations of officer misconduct fully, fairly, and efficiently, and holds all officers who commit misconduct accountable through fair and consistent discipline.”

The agreement with Minneapolis reached earlier this month came years after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of officers with the city’s police department. A DOJ probe of the department found that its officers used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force.”

Among other things, the agreement focused on Minneapolis “preventing excessive force; stopping racially discriminatory policing; improving officers’ interactions with youth” and “protecting the public’s First Amendment rights,” according to DOJ.

During Trump’s first term, the Justice Department attempted to upend an Obama-era consent decree for Baltimore’s police department that hadn’t yet been approved by a judge by the time the new administration took over.

But that effort ultimately failed, with a federal judge in Maryland saying the Justice Department’s move to scrap the agreement came too late.

“The time for expressing ‘grave concerns’ has passed and instead the parties must now execute the agreement as they promised they would,” US District Court Judge James Bredar wrote in an April 2017 decision.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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