DOJ May Support Shelter in place Lawsuits

Timothy Birdnow

Looks like the Trump Administration's Department of Justice may back the plaintiffs in lawsuits against state Coronavirus closures.

From El Zoro News:

Attorney General Bill Barr took a clear swipe Tuesday at state restrictions on citizens during the coronavirus pandemic, indicating not only that people could sue over measures that go too far but that the Justice Department could end up siding with them against the states.

In an appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program, Barr specified some of the legal issues raised by state orders –likening some to "house arrest" –and how they could lead the federal government to get involved.

Our federal constitutional rights don’t go away in an emergency. They constrain what the government can do,” Barr said in the Tuesday interview. "And in a circumstance like this, they put on the government the burden to make sure that whatever burdens it’s putting on our constitutional liberties are strictly necessary to deal with the problem. They have to be targeted. They have to use less intrusive means if they are equally effective in dealing with the problem. And that’s the situation we’re in today. We’re moving into a period where we have to do a better job of targeting the measures we’re deploying to deal with this virus.”

Amen.

Naturally the Democrats, always friends to states rights, have found the Tenth Amendment again:

"So much for states’ rights. I mean I think they’ll be way off base. I think he will lose legally. And his view of an overarching almost monarchical president never ceases to amaze me,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believes Barr is getting "into a place that I think even the public knows doesn’t makesense.”

So suing over the First Amendment and the Interstate Commerce Clause is somehow wrong in the face of "states rights"? Schumer and Pelosi wipe their bottoms with copies of the Constitution on a regular basis, and they particularly love the Tenth Amendment for the dirtiest part. Where was their concern for states rights when they demanded Obamacare be implemented across the country? When they insisted on gay marriage? Where are states rights on abortion? (For those who do not know the individual states regulated abortion before Roe v. Wade.)

 

Hypocrites.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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