In late August, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights
Division announced
that it had issued requests to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan
concerning their handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes. The unspoken
threat, it seemed, was that the department could file lawsuits against these
states—all run by Democratic governors—related to nursing home deaths. The
requests were transparently
political, considering both the dubious use of the statute—a provision that
provides civil rights protections for people in government-run group settings
that the department has not used to investigate, say, the handling of the
pandemic at prisons
and jails—and the conspicuous election-season timing of the news. Meanwhile,
states run by Republican governors were …read more
Source:: The New Republic
