Barr appeared on conservative host Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Tuesday. The Justice Department head said that while strict government action may have been justified to slow the coronavirus, the overbearing regulations are risking doing more harm than good.
UNPRECEDENTED BURDENS
“These are unprecedented burdens on civil liberties right now. You know, the idea that you have to stay in your house is disturbingly close to house arrest,” Barr said. “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.”
Barr compared it to chemo for a cancer patient.
“Your first thing is to drive [the cancer] back to a more manageable state, and that’s what we’re doing and have done,” the attorney general said. “The question is, you can’t just keep on feeding the patient chemotherapy and say ‘well, we’re killing the cancer,’ because we’re getting to the point where we’re killing the patient.”
Attorney General Barr might sue the governors who have gone too far in trampling the civil liberties of Americans.
It likely won’t phase them. The Bill of Rights is above their pay grade and they don’t think about that. Just ask Governor Murphy of New Jersey.
ALLOW BUSINESSES TO OPERATE
“We have to give businesses more freedom to operate in a way that’s reasonably safe,” Barr said, according to Bloomberg. “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.”
Attorney General William Barr warns that some state governors have, to an extent, infringed on their constituents’ fundamental and constitutional rights.
Barr advised governors that their restrictions need to be “properly targeted” so as not to unnecessarily affect the rights of residents.
“When a governor acts, especially when a governor does something that intrudes upon or infringes on a fundamental right or a Constitutional right, they’re bounded by that,” he said. “And those situations are emerging around the country, to some extent.”
EXAMPLES
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, for example, won’t let people go between two homes they own and she won’t let them buy garden supplies.
She threatened to extend the lockdown when protests began erupting.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he “wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights” when imposing social distancing measures that included banning church gatherings.
There is also, among others, the mayor of Louisville who cited drive-in churchgoers. Then there are all those Jew and Christian hunters who imprison Hassidic Jews and pastors for praying, even if they are 6 ft apart.
Also, we have the snitch patrols being set up throughout the country, primarily in Democrat states and cities.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
