Attorney General William Barr said that coronavirus lockdown measures are the “greatest intrusion of civil liberties” in the United States since slavery.
“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders, is like house arrest. It’s — you know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said at Hillsdale College on Wednesday evening during a question and answer session.
The comments come after Barr issued a two-page memo in April warning that U.S. leaders must balance public safety with preserving civil rights amid the pandemic.
“Many policies that would be unthinkable in regular times have become commonplace in recent weeks, and we do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public,” Barr said at the time. “But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis. We must, therefore, be vigilant to ensure its protections are preserved, at the same time that the public is protected. I thank you for your attention to this important initiative and for your service to our country.”
The attorney general was in Michigan to celebrate Constitution Day, which is to commemorate the 1787 signing of the Constitution.
Barr delivered a prepared address during the event, where he also defended high-level Department of Justice officials intervening in some decisions made by lower-level officials, which critics have decried as him and President Trump overstepping their bounds.
“Name one successful organization where the lowest level employees’ decisions are deemed sacrosanct. There aren’t any. Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it’s no way to run a federal agency. Good leaders at the Justice Department — as at any organization — need to trust and support their subordinates. But that does not mean blindly deferring to whatever those subordinates want to do,” he said.
