Bill Barr, civil liberties, and sedition
It's interesting that this news : Attorney General William Barr drew criticism after calling lockdown measures aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19 the worst infringement on civil liberties other than slavery. Came down at the same time as this news : William Barr told prosecutors to explore aggressive charges against people arrested at recent demonstrations across the US, even suggesting bringing a rarely used sedition charge , reserved for those who have plotted a threat that posed imminent danger to government authority, according to multiple reports on Wednesday. Barr's interest in civil liberties is ... situational, shall we say. There is no right to commit vandalism of and destruction to government property, of course, but there's a reason sedition charges are rarely used: They've often been used in American history to tamp down legitimate dissent. This was notoriously the case under President John Adams. Jill Lepore, in her book THESE TRUTHS, wrote about