Attorney General Bill Barr directed all 93 U.S. attorneys on Monday to “be on the lookout for state and local directives” that curtail individual rights in the name of containing the novel coronavirus.
“Many policies that would be unthinkable in regular times have become commonplace in recent weeks,” Barr wrote in a two-page memo, “and we do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public. But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis.”
President Trump has put the onus on governors to decide when to ease stay-at-home orders and reopen their states. While somewhat erratic and contradictory vis-a-vis Georgia’s policy to start reopening last week, Trump has made increasingly clear in public and private – including a conference call on Monday – that he wants the nation’s governors to open sooner than later.
This new declaration by the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, who has heavily politicized the Justice Department during his tenure, should be read as a warning to governors and mayors that they may face challenges in federal court if they don’t move quick enough to relax restrictions.
It also foreshadows how litigious the reopening of the country could become, as individuals bring lawsuits against states – with possible assistance and support from the federal government. Judges in Illinois and Virginia issued rulings on Monday, for example, that undermined the orders by governors in those states.
Barr announced that his point men on “this important initiative” will be Matt Schneider, the Detroit-based U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, andEric Dreiband, the assistant attorney general who is best known for service as one of Ken Starr’s lieutenants during the investigation of President Bill Clinton. This seems notable because Trump has specifically decried restrictions imposed on residents by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and leads a top battleground state in the presidential election. “LIBERTATE MICHIGAN!”, Trump tweeted on April 17.
Barr is the fourth horseman of the apocalypse (Trump, McConnell, Murdoch are the other three.) As bad as he’s been at killing the concept of constitutional democracy, it wasn’t enough. Now he’s in the killing people business.
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