Dozens of American cities aren't actually run by their mayors or city councils — they're run by decades-old federal court agreements that nobody can figure out how to escape. We trace how consent decrees, originally a civil rights enforcement tool, became permanent shadow governments overseeing police departments, school systems, and jails long after the original crisis passed, the lawyers who profit from keeping them alive, and what happens when a city tries to leave. Last week we covered the bureaucratic veto nobody voted for — this week, it's the judicial takeover nobody can vote out.