Governors who impose rules to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that infringe on constitutional rights can expect to face legal action, warned Attorney General William Barr.
In an interview Tuesday on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Barr urged states to enact targeted measures, citing President Trump’s guidelines. Barr said:
We have to give businesses more freedom to operate in a way that’s reasonably safe. To the extent that governors don’t and impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce – our common market that we have here – then we’ll have to address that.1
Barr said the Justice Department could join lawsuits by citizens or businesses against restrictions, adding that as “specific cases emerge in the states, we’ll take a look at them.”1 He said:
We’re looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place. And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them. And if they’re not and people bring lawsuits, we file statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.1
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Bloomberg reported a group led by former Attorney General Ed Meese claims “rampant abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties,”1 urging Barr “to undertake immediate review of all the orders that have been issued by the states and local governments across the nation.”1
Barr told Hewitt on Tuesday that Americans have been subject to “very, very burdensome impingements on liberty,”1 adding:
And we adopted them, we have to remember, for the limited purpose of slowing down the spread, that is bending the curve. We didn’t adopt them as the comprehensive way of dealing with this disease.1
You can’t just keep on feeding the patient chemotherapy and say well, we’re killing the cancer, because we were getting to the point where we’re killing the patient. And now is the time that we have to start looking ahead and adjusting to more targeted therapies.1
The idea that you have to stay in your house is disturbingly close to house arrest. I’m not saying it wasn’t justified. I’m not saying in some places it might still be justified. But it’s very onerous, as is shutting down your livelihood.2
