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The COVID-19 pandemic has begun to challenge basic premises of liberal democracy, such as individual rights to privacy and constraints on executive power. But even before the public health crisis drove a rush to emergency measures, liberal democracy was straining under the weight of mounting political polarization, distrust and a win-at-any-cost mindset among political competitors.   In …

The Department of Justice warned California in a Tuesday letter that the state’s lockdown order “facially discriminates against religious exercise” and that Governor Gavin Newsom’s rulings “do not justify California’s actions” in banning in-person worship. Eric S. Dreiband, an assistant attorney general and the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote in a …

Messages between director Paul Haggis’ rape accuser and her pals about the alleged 2013 incident will remain secret, a judge ruled Monday. The Oscar-winning “Crash” filmmaker — who was sued by publicist Haleigh Breest in 2017 for the alleged attack — asked a judge to unseal the text messages along with other information, claiming it …

The world did not end when Tom Brady left the New England Patriots, so says one of his former teammates. “When he made a decision, to me it wasn’t like the end of the world,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty told SiriusXM NFL radio on Friday. Some Patriots fans may have felt differently, seeing their six-time …

The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former national-security adviser Michael Flynn is weighing charges of perjury or contempt for Flynn even as the Justice Department seeks to have the case dismissed. Judge Emmet Sullivan said he has appointed a former federal judge to argue against the Justice Department’s controversial move to dismiss the case against …

The Biden campaign on Wednesday brushed off the former vice president’s presence on a list of Obama administration officials who apparently sought to “unmask” former national-security adviser Michael Flynn, saying Biden was unaware of Flynn’s identity when the requests for information were made. Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified a memo this week listing …

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against the state’s extension of its stay at home order, which was put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus. In a win for the Republican majority in the state legislature, the court ruled in a 4-to-3 decision that Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ stay at home …

The heir to a frozen health-food empire was ordered quarantined and barred from seeing his three kids after he went out “partying” amid the coronavirus crisis — and openly left a stash of drugs in the Hamptons home where they were staying with a nanny, The Post has learned. Larry Praeger — whose late dad, …

Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, and widow, Courtney Love, are about to lose a vicious tug-of-war over his famed “Unplugged” guitar that has raged on for years — a battle that’s involved alleged death threats and murder plots, private investigators and multiple ugly lawsuits. As recently as July, Love and Frances were mounting a …

Attorney General William Barr defended the Justice Department’s controversial decision to drop the case against former national-security adviser Michael Flynn, who earlier this year withdrew his guilty plea that he lied to the FBI about his Russian contacts. Barr was asked in a CBS interview released Thursday how he thinks history will judge his decision …