Fox News' Tucker Carlson pressed New Jersey Gov, Phil Murphy (D) on Wednesday night about his decision to allow arrests at religious services to be included in the enforcement of his quarantine order. Carlson was referring to the arrest of 15 men at the funeral of a rabbi in Ocean County earlier in April.
Carlson asked, "The Bill of Rights, as you well know, protects Americans' rights - enshrines their right to practice their religion as they see fit and to congregate together to assemble peacefully. By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order? How do you have the power to do that?"
Murphy responded, "That's above my pay grade, Tucker. I wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this. We looked at all the data and the science and it says people have to stay away from each other."
But Carlson persisted, "Since you are an elected official, a leader in the government, an executive, how do you have the authority to order something that so clearly contravenes the Bill of Rights of the United States - the U.S. Constitution - where do you get the authority to do that?"
Murphy replied, "We know we need to stay away from each other, number one. Number two, we do have broad authority within the state. And number three, we would never do that without coordinating, discussing, and hashing it out with the variety of the leaders of the faiths of New Jersey."
He added, "We have to find a different way to worship."
Carlson then noted, "The government’s not allowed to tell people how to worship... You can't just, as the governor of a state, tell people who they can talk to when and where, because the Constitution of the United States - upon which all of this is based - prohibits you from doing that, so you clearly decided that you could do it."