A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri [official website] on Tuesday approved a settlement agreement [text, PDF] between the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] and the city of Ferguson, Missouri [official website]. The suit had been filed by the DOJ against the city for alleged police injustice by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch [official website] and had claimed that actions by Ferguson police officers had violated the federal constitution and national civil rights laws. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said [press release] Tuesday that “the department is looking forward to working with the city of Ferguson as it implements the decree and continues the essential work to create a police department that the Constitution requires and that residents deserve.”

The settlement was submitted to the judge earlier in March after Lynch had first announced the lawsuit [JURIST reports] alleging unjust policing in February. Included in the lawsuit were allegations that the police department and municipal court interfere with citizens’ First Amendment right to free expression, prosecute and resolve municipal charges in a manner which violates due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, and engage in discriminatory law enforcement conduct against African Americans in violation of both the Fourteenth Amendment and federal law. Ferguson gained international attention after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown and the subsequent trial [JURIST report]. The response to the shooting set off massive protests and social unrest that cost millions of dollars.