The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday rejected an appeal by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge Number 7, blocking them from intervening in the court-ordered reform program aimed at combating the Chicago police’s pattern of unconstitutional use of force.

In January 2017 the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report finding that officers of the Chicago police department routinely violated constitutional rights by engaging in a pattern of excessive use of force, including deadly force. In the report, the DOJ stated that the department’s accountability measures were lacking and that reform of the system “overseen by a federal judge” was necessary. In August 2017 the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago began drafting a consent decree in the local federal district court to reform the police department to address the DOJ’s concerns.

FOP Lodge 7 was highly critical of the proposed measure. In a statement by Lodge president Kevin Graham, the Lodge described the consent decree as a “potential catastrophe” and warned that the decree could threaten the union’s collective bargaining rights if the measure was implemented. Despite this condemnation, the Lodge did not move to act as an interlocutor in court for nearly a years, filing a motion in early June of 2018. It was for this untimeliness in moving to act that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Lodge’s appeal. Circuit Judge Kanne, writing the opinion of the court, found that while the Lodge was clearly an “interested party” to the proceedings, their delay in filing a motion to intervene precluded them from being allowed to enter into the negotiations at such a late date. “The Lodge knew from the beginning that a consent decree might impact its interests,” he wrote, “but delayed their filing anyway”.