WASHINGTON — A community of conservative leaders, donors and organizations has launched a authorized onslaught in opposition to state and native re
WASHINGTON — A community of conservative leaders, donors and organizations has launched a authorized onslaught in opposition to state and native restrictions supposed to gradual the unfold of the coronavirus, pushing to permit church buildings to carry providers, companies to reopen and other people to have the ability to go to with household and mates.
They’ve been emboldened in current days by growing indicators of help from a robust ally: The Justice Division.
Justice Division officers have spoken on convention calls with leaders of conservative teams, who’ve flagged particular person circumstances as worthy of the division’s assessment. Some cupboard officers have signaled that they again the trouble by taking part in non-public calls with conservative allies, based on a number of folks concerned with the calls.
This week the Justice Division delivered the clearest present of help but when Legal professional Common William P. Barr issued a memorandum directing two of his department’s top lawyers to lead an effort with other federal agencies to monitor state and local policies “and, if necessary, take action to correct” those that “could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.”
“We do not want to unduly interfere with the important efforts of state and local officials to protect the public,” Mr. Barr wrote. “But the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis.”
Though the Justice Department has so far weighed in formally on only one case — a lawsuit by a Baptist church in Greenville, Miss. — the new directive reinforced the message that court challenges to state and local restrictions by President Trump’s allies could get a favorable viewing, and potential support, from the administration.
The guidance raises the prospect that the Trump administration could side with supportive groups in legal challenges against elected state and local leaders who enacted policies that were intended to stave off the spread of the virus, which has led to more than 53,000 deaths. Public health officials fear the virus’s spread could be accelerated by premature lifting of restrictions.
“It would not be the first time that the federal government has tried to undercut states’ rights by pushing its own agenda,” said Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has supported some challenges to coronavirus restrictions but is concerned that the federal government could take its own action against state and local rules.
The challenges by Mr. Trump’s allies have produced mixed results.
In Texas, more than 200 business leaders, pastors and Republican donors filed a lawsuit arguing that stay-at-home orders from Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, violated the State Constitution and were “impinging upon the civil rights and liberties” of all Texans. In Kansas, a federal judge this month blocked the enforcement of a 10-person limit on in-person attendance at religious services for two churches that sued the governor, a Democrat.
In California, a Los Angeles judge last week ruled the opposite way, denying a request by three churches to hold in-person services.
And on Monday, a circuit court judge in Southern Illinois ruled that a stay-at-home order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, violated individual civil rights, upholding a legal challenge by a Republican state representative.
The number of cases involving church services reflects a belief among religious conservatives who form an important part of Mr. Trump’s political base that the restrictions have the effect of targeting Christians in particular.
Tony Perkins, a leading Christian conservative ally of the president, warned that unless the restrictions began to lift, state and local leaders should brace themselves for increased civil disobedience across the country.
“At the end of this month, we’ll be at 45 days since the president first issued his guidelines. God only kept Moses on the mountain for 40 days,” said Mr. Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, the conservative Christian policy group. “They’re ready to come down.”
“We would certainly applaud it if the D.O.J. were to actively address the constitutional infringements that too many of these orders and their enforcement involve,” Ms. Mitchell said. She praised the memo Mr. Barr issued on Monday as arriving “not a moment too soon,” and said his comments last week on a conservative radio show signaling potential support for third-party lawsuits were “exactly what we requested.”
But Mr. Romero of the American Civil Liberties Union said the potential involvement of the Justice Department risks muddling and politicizing what should be a nonpartisan push to protect civil liberties.
His group has taken legal action of its own challenging coronavirus restrictions in Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. But it has rejected requests to represent churches suing to overturn bans that it assessed as necessary and within states’ rights, Mr. Romero said, and he signaled that his group might oppose moves by the Justice Department to overturn some state and local bans.
“If D.O.J. challenges legitimate state orders on the Covid pandemic, Attorney General Barr will never be able to say that he believes in states’ rights with a straight face,” Mr. Romero said.
A White House spokesman rejected suggestions of conflict between Mr. Trump and state and local officials over coronavirus restrictions.
“Getting the American people back to work, back to sporting events, back to churches, back to restaurants — and doing so safely — is the president’s shared goal with governors, and only the media would suggest there is division and distrust in that partnership,” said the spokesman, Judd Deere.
In private calls with Mr. Trump, Mr. Perkins said, he has encouraged the president to pressure governors to allow churches some flexibility under the state and local guidelines. His organization is holding a weekly call between administration officials and hundreds of pastors across the country.
Participants have included Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, and Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Wolf joined a call this month that was partly about the role of clergy in administering last rites to dying people, according to a Homeland Security official.
In a separate call with Mr. Barr, the attorney general reassured hundreds of faith leaders last week that he would guard against state leaders unfairly penalizing religious institutions, according to a participant.
“The tolerance level has been reached, so either governors need to start partnering with churches and the private sector, or they’re going to lose control,” Mr. Perkins said.
As conservative lawyers push forward with their lawsuits, they said they did not expect Mr. Barr and his lawyers to publicly comment on many cases. Yet the threat that the department could weigh in may be enough to encourage local officials to loosen some restrictions or carve out exceptions for religious institutions, they said.
In his memo on Monday, Mr. Barr assigned the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Eric Dreiband, and Matthew Schneider, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan to work “not only with all Department of Justice offices and other federal agencies, but with state and local officials as well” to review, and possibly “correct” restrictions deemed to go too far.
The memo did not specify whether the department would submit filings in support of cases by others, or bring its own cases.
A Justice Department spokeswoman would not elaborate, instead pointing to the memo, the department’s filing in the Mississippi case and Mr. Barr’s public comments on the subject.
Rachel Bovard, senior policy director at the Conservative Partnership Institute, signed the letter urging the department to intervene in cases. She said the Justice Department was “not going to go in and start swinging with a machete,” but “where there is ample evidence, they do have a role to step in.”
Throughout his time as attorney general, Mr. Barr has prioritized Justice Department cases involving religious institutions. In public remarks, Mr. Barr has painted a picture of a country split between “secularists” — who “seem to take a delight in compelling people to violate their conscience” — and people of faith.
Churches and advocacy organizations have already filed lawsuits against state and local governments in states including Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi and California. Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group that is leading a campaign to reopen churches this weekend, is working on issues related to church access in more than 35 states, according to Mat Staver, the group’s chairman.
Other lawsuits take aim at restrictions that business owners say have intruded on their civil liberties. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faces multiple lawsuits over her stay-at-home orders, with business owners and civil libertarians challenging her ban on travel to second homes, motorized boats and even her authority to issue such restrictions.
The effort isn’t limited to targeting Democratic leaders. In Texas, plaintiffs challenging Mr. Abbott’s orders include Steven Hotze, Norman Adams and Al Hartman, three Republican donors in the state.
Mr. Hotze, known for his opposition to L.G.B.T. rights, also filed a lawsuit against Judge Lina Hidalgo of Harris County, a Democrat, last Thursday, arguing that her order requiring residents over 10 years old to wear face masks in public places for 30 days exceeded her constitutional authority.
The Republican plaintiffs, like Mr. Hotze, would like the state to adopt the approach of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a vocal opponent of the stay-at-home orders, who argued last month that grandparents should be willing to “take a chance” with their lives to save the economy.
“What you have is an overreaction by government in the state level that has resulted in huge damage to the state of Texas,” said Jared Woodfill, a lawyer who is representing the plaintiffs and served as the head of the Republican Party in Harris County for a dozen years. “The lieutenant governor has got it right. He’s said we never should have done this. Period.”
Katie Benner contributed reporting.