AG Barr: Coronavirus Lockdowns ‘Greatest Intrusion on Civil Liberties’ Since Slavery

What's the story?

• Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday blasted efforts by governors to prevent the spread of coronavirus with stay-at-home orders, calling such lockdowns the "greatest intrusion on civil liberties" since slavery.

"You know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history," Barr said in a speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

• Barr continued: "Most of the governors do what bureaucrats always do, which is they... defy common sense. They treat free citizens as babies that can't take responsibility for themselves and others."
• Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the most-senior Black lawmaker in Congress, slammed Barr’s remarks as “the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It is incredible that (the) chief law enforcement officer in this country would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives. Slavery was not about saving lives, it was about devaluing lives.”

What do you think?

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—Josh Herman