GOP Senators Confront Garland On Protesters Outside Homes Of Supreme Court Justices | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Daniel Chaitin.

    Republican senators pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland on enforcing a federal law against protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes.

    During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) set a focus on demonstrators carrying signs and shouting slogans outside the residences of justices after the 2022 leak and issuance of the Supreme Court opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, which determined that abortion is not a constitutional right.

    Lee, a former law clerk, said it is "very clear" that protesters are trying to influence jurisprudence in potential violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1507, which prohibits pickets or parades near the house of a judge with the intent of influencing or impeding the administration of justice.

    Garland said he did not know the answer when asked if anyone has been charged under the statute, but stressed that the U.S. Marshals Service, a bureau of the Justice Department, is focused on protecting justices and their families and can make arrests if the situation calls for it.

    "As soon as the Dobbs draft leaked I ordered the Marshals to do something that the United States Marshals had never in history done before, which was protect the justices' homes, residences, and lives 24-7," he testified.

    Garland said 70 U.S. Marshals were assigned to this task, and attributed this deployment to foiling the plans of a man arrested and charged with attempting to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

    State and local officials have "similar" authorities, noted Garland, who then said he did not know what, if any, actions they have taken.

    Lee appeared unsatisfied with Garland's answers.

    "It is concerning to me when you show up at the home of a public official. You're sending the message of implicit violence," Lee said. "You're sending the message, 'We know where you sleep.' 'We know where you and your family are most vulnerable.'"

    During another round of questioning, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) picked back up on the issue of protecting Supreme Court justices. Cruz asked the attorney general point blank if protesting outside the home of a judge intent with the intent of influencing that judge in a pending case is a federal crime. Garland said the answer is "yes."

    The exchange turned confrontational as Cruz accused the Justice Department and Garland of inaction as "extremist groups" shared personal information not only about the justices, but also members of their families.

    "Your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias!" Cruz said.

    Garland rejected claims of political bias and asserted he did not sit idly by in protecting the justices.

poll#150

With respect to the leaked opinion not yet written for ratification regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's revisiting the original decision of Roe v Wade, whence now nonstop protests have erupted in neighborhoods where U.S. Supreme Court justices live, exhibiting the firm intent to intimidate these officers of the highest court in the land: What action should the federal authorities take?

  Do nothing ... Protests are a fixture of a free society.

  Enforce the law ... Federal codes exist to prohibit any intimidation through the pubic harassment of federal judges, especially Supreme Court justices.

  I have no idea, however, northern Virginia School Board Members must be shielded from protests at all costs.

548 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#170

Considering what has happened to our Representative Republic since the corruptive orthodoxy that led to the tolerated abomination - The Russia Hoax - where felonies were perpetrated upon the American People by the creation of the Two Tiered Justice System, in the misnomer of "Social Justice:" Where do you stand on sustaining our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms in a society where injustice is chronically sanctioned by one political orthodoxy?

  I believe in a perfected society by employing a higher governmental authority to train the behavior of the public.

  The United States Constitution does not allow just a few freedoms, it guarantees ALL freedoms promised to Humankind by God.

  Just don't take away my Social Media.

420 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#152

With Roe v Wade (originated in 1973) overturned by the US Supreme Court, thereby allowing decisions on abortion legislation completely returned to the states: Where do you find your position on such a "Life and Death" issue for the American People?

  Yes, I approve of the US Supreme Court's decision to reinstate this "medical" issue back to the states' legislative responsibility to regulate.

  No, I believe that every woman should have complete access to abortion on demand.

  This issue is far beyond my intellectual capacity to understand.

583 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?