UPDATED: Bill Barr Speaks--And How!

Sometimes it seems as if Bill Barr has as much energy as Trump himself. When he's not traveling the world in search of the origins of the Russia Hoax he's giving big picture addresses. And he shows the same willingness to fearlessly grasp media designated third rails. Who thinks he didn't anticipate the reaction of "legal experts" to this speech. Guess what--Bill Barr IS a legal expert. And he knows it and isn't afraid to flaunt it. The full text isn't readily available yet, but to make up for that you get Pema Levy's editorializing. It's good for comic relief. Bill Barr is like Honey Badger--he just don't care. For less comical commentary, but more balanced reporting, The Daily Caller: Bill Barr Flames ‘Unremitting Assault’ On Religion, Traditional Values During Notre Dame Visit. This was October 11, 2019:

Attorney General Barr Rages Against Secularist “Assault” on Religion

Barr blames society’s problems, including “a deadly drug epidemic,” on a lack of faith.

PEMA LEVY
Reporter


Experts blame grim economic conditions and the predatory practices of pharmaceutical companies for the current opioid epidemic. Unrest and violence on the part of young men is often attributed to economic conditions and accessibility of fringe ideologies online. But Attorney General Bill Barr apparently has a different theory for both of these problems: not enough religion.

In a speech at University of Notre Dame’s law school Friday, Barr blamed “secularists” and “so-called progressives” for wreaking havoc on American society. Barr’s depiction of a war between the non-religious and people of faith shocked legal experts, who saw Barr’s defense of religious freedom as an assault on the First Amendment’s protection against the government’s establishment of any religion.

“This is not decay,” Barr said. “This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion & traditional values.” (Barr spent years profiting off of these same industries he is attacking. He served as general counsel at Verizon for eight years, held a had a paid position on the board of Time Warner for nine, and represented telecoms giant GTE in the 1990s.)

In his address Friday, Barr thundered against what he described as a “moral upheaval.” “Virtually every measure of social pathology continues to gain ground,” he said. “Along with the wreckage of the family we are seeing record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of alienated young males, an increase in senseless violence and the deadly drug epidemic.”

Barr pointed particularly to public schools, according to an account of the speech from the Indianapolis Star. “Ground zero for these attacks on religion are the schools,” Barr said. “To me this is the most serious challenge to religious liberty today.” There is decades of Supreme Court caselaw removing religion from public schools because the First Amendment bans the government from establishing or giving primacy to a religion.

This isn’t the first time Barr has decried secular culture. He has been an advocate for more religion in American government, schools, and law for decades and has a history of involvement with conservative religious groups including the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which litigated the Hobby Lobby case that allowed employers not to cover contraception coverage to employees. In 1995, for example, Barr penned an essay blaming “a steady and mounting assault on traditional values” since the 1960s for “soaring juvenile crime, widespread drug addiction and skyrocketing venereal diseases.”

Barr’s comments come as he is under a cloud of scandal for his active involvement in trying to find evidence of the unproven theory that Ukraine colluded with Democrats during the 2016 election—an effort that took Barr to Italy this year and may have dragged him into the Ukraine scandal that set of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

On Twitter, legal experts reacted to Barr’s speech with dismay.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the full 40 minute video of Barr's address for anyone interested, care of commenter Gideon:

https://www.facebook.com/ABC13News/videos/480014302605398/