How to liberate Michigan
Barr is threatening states that take strong measures to slow the pandemic.
Attorney General Bill Barr directed all 93 U.S. attorneys on Monday to “be on the lookout for state and local directives” that curtail individual rights in the name of containing the novel coronavirus.
Of course quarantines curtail individual rights, but you know what else does that? Death, and debilitating after-effects of damaged lungs and other organs. Sometimes individual rights have to give way to the rights of everyone else.
This new declaration by the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, who has heavily politicized the Justice Department during his tenure, should be read as a warning to governors and mayors that they may face challenges in federal court if they don’t move quick enough to relax restrictions.
On the other hand more people may die if they move quickly to relax restrictions.
To be fair…it’s not lotsa deaths versus zero deaths. The restrictions are bound to cause some deaths themselves – from domestic violence, from not being able to get medical help in time, from the heightened risks of extreme poverty, from risks taken to avoid extreme poverty, from suicide, and so on. It’s not risk v no risk, it’s x number of risks v y number of risks, with the informed medical opinion being that we need to slow the pandemic as a matter of urgency.
But Barr? Barr has proven himself such a shameless hack for Trump that it’s all but impossible to think he is weighing comparative risks now as opposed to being Trump’s consigliere.
Barr announced that his point men on “this important initiative” will be Matt Schneider, the Detroit-based U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, andEric Dreiband, the assistant attorney general who is best known for service as one of Ken Starr’s lieutenants during the investigation of President Bill Clinton. This seems notable because Trump has specifically decried restrictions imposed on residents by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and leads a top battleground state in the presidential election. “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!,” Trump tweeted on April 17.
Emphasis theirs. What a funny coincidence that he picked a Michigan one and a Clinton impeachment one.
Barr did not specify any policies in the memo, but he said the duo will review what’s going on and, “if necessary,” take corrective action. “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,” the attorney general wrote.
Do we trust Barr to decide fairly where that line is? No we do not.
A few weeks ago, Barr told Laura Ingraham on Fox News that he considers some policies “draconian” and telegraphed that a hardball approach was coming. “When this period of time, at the end of April, expires, I think we have to allow people to adapt more than we have,” he said, “and not just tell people to go home and hide under their bed, but allow them to use other ways — social distancing and other means — to protect themselves.”
But it’s not about “adapting.” We can’t “adapt” to this virus at this timescale – it won’t let us. Long term, maybe a race of immune-to-COVID-19 people would emerge, but lots of people who are alive now (and lots who have children and grandchildren) would like to avoid infection now.
And if they lift the stay-home orders, there are many who won’t have a choice any longer; we will be forced back to work by our bosses. So it restricts our freedom to be safe. It is not maximizing freedom, it’s about maximizing death in the face of inconvenience and economic hardship. Inconvenience can be lived with; economic hardship requires strong measures by the government, which some appear willing to take, but Trump clearly is not.
I was watching an OPB program on the Oregon Experience last night that was about the Vortex music festival in 19
6770. It was soooo Oregon. In the aftermath of Kent State a lot of cities were facing riots and Portland was going to be host of a national VFW conference with RM Nixon scheduled to speak. Peace protestors were gathering to march by the thousands and it looked like there was a high risk of confrontation.Enter a group of people who petitioned the governor’s office to be allowed to have a music festival at the same time. Some days later they were contacted by the office of Governor Tom McCall (R) that it was a go. McCall would later go on TV and promote the festival during an emergency news conference (to date the only time a music festival was a public emergency). State police were instructed to safely escort any young people who wanted to go and the participants were told that there would be no drug enforcement during the festival. Participants recalled how polite and helpful the police were. A State park was allotted (by the state) and both the city of Portland, The State of Oregon, and Portland business groups donated supplies, materials, and feed the lot for free (somewhere between 30-100,000 people). Local farmers allowed their fields to be used to park cars.
An aide to the governor was put in charge of the event and everyone was amazed when officials helicoptered in to make sure they had what they needed. Plain clothes officers were present but only there to prevent violence. National guard troops were activated by kept clear of the event. By all accounts it was a great success and it triggered open discussions with the peace protestors. The participants were respectful and minimal damage was done.
The VFW conference went off without a hitch (other than Nixon canceling) and the protests in PDX were small and peaceful. A rare example of the establishment, the police, and the people working together for common cause.
McCall was criticized in the Nov election by his democrat challenger for the whole affair. McCall won by a large margin and went on the push through the first recycling program in the US, preserving Oregon’s ecology, and opening all Oregon shoreline to the people in his second term.
A time when there actually were great Republican leaders. No doubt, Bill Barr would have had McCall arrested…
I can’t speak for governor Whitmer, but good luck with that… federalism is a thing and a federal government that doesn’t help and steals medical supplies doesn’t really have all that much clout.
Pliny,
Are you sure about the year of the festival? Kent State was 1970.
DoH! I typed in the wrong year. It was right before the 1972 election cycle. My apologies.
That might be an argument, but…in many ways, federal law can trump state law. For instance, environmental regulations in the state must be at least as stringent as federal regulations, or the feds step in. This is one reason Texas has had so much trouble getting air quality standards written, because they don’t want to meet the federal standards (weak and puny as they are). Of course, enforcement varies by president, with Dubya insisting California’s strong air quality standards were not allowed because they were stronger than the feds (which is allowed; you can’t be weaker).
So, who knows? Our system is a mishmash of state and federal regulations. For instance, no matter what, a state cannot violate the constitution, thanks to the interpretations of the 14th Amendment, so they cannot require a religious test for public office or deny women or minorities the right to vote. But they do find ways around those regulations by imposing obstacles.
And then there is the issue of marijuana. The feds claim federal law applies, but states seem to be doing their own thing.
The thing is, these shut downs affect interstate commerce, whether directly or indirectly, and that is the hook the feds usually use to force the states to do what they want.
Yeah, I dunno what the eventual results will be over all… but as the federal government seems to be able to do whatever it likes regardless of the actual laws I’d like to see states follow suit. The US needs to start working or it needs to break up, and ignoring the federal government is a good start.
“A lot hinges on the fact that, in most circumstances, people are not allowed to hit you with a mallet. They put up all kinds of visible and invisible signs that say, ‘Do not do this’ in the hope that it’ll work, but if it doesn’t, then they shrug, because there is, really, no real mallet at all.”
-Terry Pratchett
Yeah, that seems like a good idea right now, but…one reason the courts interpreted the 14th that way is that the states were ignoring the federal government, and segregating black people…refusing to allow women to vote….refusing women the right to contraception…to abortion…refusing to allow black people to attend decent schools or drink out of the decent drinking fountains or sit at tables in restaurants…refusing to allow women into a lot of “man cave” spaces like golf clubs and board rooms…
So I’m not so eager to turn that much power over to the states, either.
The thing is, there is no winning solution. Either the states ignore basic rights, or the feds open us up in a pandemic, or we all just sort of drift into oblivion, or something…it isn’t going to be pretty.