California’s Top Cop Defends Extraordinary Virus Shutdowns

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California’s top law enforcement official says that what would normally be broad constitutional protections for freedoms of assembly, religion or buying guns have their limits when they endanger others during the coronavirus pandemic. The state has been sued over all three shutdown orders as government officials pick winners and losers in which businesses and activities can continue and which must be curtailed to contain spread of the virus. But Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in an interview Thursday that officials have broad authority to do what they think is necessary to slow the spread, even if that trumps normal fundamental freedoms.

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