Law enforcement officers watch as protesters march through the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in suburban Maryland in June.
Pictures of Nathan Howard / Getty
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Pictures of Nathan Howard / Getty
Law enforcement officers watch as protesters march through the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in suburban Maryland in June.
Pictures of Nathan Howard / Getty
In a series of letters sent over the weekend, the governor of the US Supreme Court urged officials in Maryland and Virginia to “enforce” state and local laws that, she said, “prohibit” picnic outside the homes of the Supreme Court Justices.”
“For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bull-guns and beating drums robbed the Judge’s home in Virginia,” Marshal Gail Curley wrote to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. “This is exactly the kind of behavior that Virginia law prohibits.”
Curley sent similar letters to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, along with several Maryland and Virginia county officials.
Curley’s request comes after weeks of protests and outings outside the homes of conservative judges of the court in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. Roe v. Wade.
In June, police arrested an armed man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home after the man called 911 to confess that he had committed suicide and had come to Maryland with the intention of harming both himself and Kavanaugh. Since then, he has pleaded not guilty to a single count of attempted murder.
Law enforcement, both federal and local, have been at the judges’ homes since the protests began. But the governors of Virginia and Maryland have previously said that responsibility for managing the protests rests with federal law enforcement.
In a letter sent in May to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, two governors invoke federal law that explicitly forbids demonstrations at the judges’ homes, and they urged Garland to enforce it.
Today, @GovernorVA and I sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on the Department of Justice to provide adequate resources to keep Supreme Court justices and their families safe amid the protests. going on in their home. pic.twitter.com/6D0bMGSp3q
– Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) May 11, 2022
Then, at Garland’s direction, the U.S. Police Department “accelerated the provision of 24-hour security” at the judges’ homes, According to the Department of Justice.
Still, the protests have continued, intensifying in recent days after the court’s conservative majority made a series of major decisions that align with Republican political preferences on abortion. gun control and government’s ability to tackle climate change.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Maryland Governor Hogan hinted that there were First Amendment concerns with the provisions cited by the sheriff, and he criticized what he described as “the federal entity continues to refuse to act” on the protests.
“If the sheriff had taken the time to get to know the matter, she would have learned that the constitutionality of the statute cited in her letter was questioned by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office,” Michael Ricci said. written in reply to Curley.
“Amid all this, our state and local law enforcement agencies have been on the front lines protecting these communities,” he said.
A spokesman for the Virginia governor said that Virginia law enforcement would continue to assist, but urged Garland “to do its job by enforcing federal law much more aggressively.”
