Attorney General Bill Barr signaled on Tuesday that the Justice Department may take legal action against governors’ stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic if the opportunity arises.
During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Barr said that if governors “impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce” with the orders, “then we’ll have to address that.”
Speaking hypothetically, the attorney general — who described the government’s preventative measures against the spread of COVID-19 as “unprecedented burdens on civil liberties” — told Hewitt that the DOJ would look at potential citizen lawsuits that might take aim at the governors’ mandates.
“And if we think it’s justified, we would take a position,” Barr said. “That’s what we’re doing now. We’re looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place.”
The attorney general said that if his department believes a governor has “gone too far” and is sued as a result, then “we file (a) statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.”
“We’re at sort of a sensitive stage where we’re really transitioning to starting a process of trying to get the nation back up and running,” he continued. “I think that’s the best approach.”
President Donald Trump has been desperately pushing for an end to stay at home orders to allow businesses to reopen and boost the economy as the presidential election draws nearer.
Who in the hell does this guy think he is!
Governors have been begging for help from the feds.
Donald tells them, not a chance, it is all on them.
And now Barr sticks his nose in it!
Gawd, Donald and his bunch are the stupidest…
“Look,” Barr explained, "we’re trying to run a death cult here.
“But people shouldn’t worry about the lifting of these egregiously onerous restrictions,” he added. “If you’re white your chances of contracting the virus and dying are actually less than if you’re one of ‘those’ people.”
And the courts are now packed with white Christian nationalist conservative ideologues. I said this is what Barr would do as Trumps enforcer…and lo and behold…
Christo-fascist warrior suddenly decides federalism is not a good idea.
He thinks he’s God’s chosen protector whose duty it is to usher in a generation of Christian authoritarian rule so that when the rapture comes he will be assured a place in heaven.