Bill Barr is still attorney general. And he is just the guy you want in that job in the middle of a deadly international pandemic. Now, as has been rumored for a while, he’s threatening to take unspecified action against states that refuse to reopen on the command of El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago.



Now, I am directing each of our United States Attorneys to also be on the lookout for state and local directives that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.

As the Department of Justice explained recently in guidance to states and localities taking steps to battle the pandemic, even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers. The legal restrictions on state and local authority are not limited to discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers. For example, the Constitution also forbids, in certain circumstances, discrimination against disfavored speech and undue interference with the national economy. If a state or local ordinance crosses the line from an appropriate exercise of authority to stop the spread of COVID- 19 into an overbearing infringement of constitutional and statutory protections, the Department of Justice may have an obligation to address that overreach in federal court.



This is vague enough that Barr’s supporters can make an argument that the proposal is reasonable. However, it's this attorney general serving this president*, so anyone who takes superficially anodyne phrases like “crosses the line” or “appropriate exercise” as being judicious is just asking for the context to become karma with a vengeance. Also, I am certain that this particular DOJ will find its “obligation to address” such situation to be most keen in states where the president* is unpopular. I am a cynical bastid in these matters and don’t care who knows it.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io