States Scan Barr Code on Civil Rights

Written by Tony Perkins | There’s federalism, and then there’s overreach. In a crisis like this one, there’s a fine line between the two — but the Trump administration is intent on making officials walk it. As some Americans lose patience with the stay-at-home orders, the Justice Department wants the country to know it’s paying attention. If governors or local leaders abuse their power to keep people locked up and businesses closed up, Attorney General William Barr wants states to know: he isn’t giving them a pass.

In a memo earlier this week, the nation’s chief law enforcer announced that he’s hand-picked two attorneys to keep an eye on the states “and, if necessary, take action to correct [it].” One of them, Eric Dreiband, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, already has plenty of practice where religious liberty is concerned — stepping in to defend churches who were unfairly singled out for harsher gathering protocol. Chances are, he’ll have even more opportunities to weigh in, as congregations in Kentucky, Washington State, Mississippi, fight for the right to worship in CDC-compliant ways.

There are some people, like Becket’s Luke Goodrich, who are trying to give officials the benefit of the doubt. “When you have a widespread, fast-moving health crisis like this, there are inevitably going to be examples of government overreach. Sometimes that could be the result of a malicious intent to restrict religious freedom,” he agreed. “But more often, it’s the result of a well-intentioned — but perhaps overeager — effort to protect public health, combined with limited time, information, expertise dealing with a pandemic.”