“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
This is why the focus is most often against the greater “scoundrel” – the politician.
And we do want scoundrels persecuted/prosecuted by Beis Din/ostracism, etc., just not by an anti-religious state.