Posted on 07/23/2024 11:46:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
House Republicans are raising concerns about the potential for more political violence, in this case against Supreme Court justices, following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., point to the “recent incendiary rhetoric directed towards other federal officials, including in particular the men and women serving on our nation’s highest court.”
Far-left activist groups and lawmakers have repeatedly threatened to restructure the court if the justices do not rule the way that these groups desire. And Justice Samuel Alito himself has said that the May 2022 leak of the draft opinion indicating Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned made the conservative justices “targets for assassination.”
“In light of the heightened rhetoric and the recent assassination attempt on President Trump, we remain concerned about the security and safety of all judicial branch officers—including and especially the safety of Supreme Court justices,” the Republicans wrote in a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday.
“As such, we request a staff-level briefing regarding the Department’s efforts and the steps taken to ensure and bolster the safety of Supreme Court justices,” they continued. “Please arrange for this briefing to occur as soon as possible, but no later than August 6, 2024.”
Neither the Supreme Court nor the DOJ immediately responded to requests for comment for this report.
The move follows the attempted assassination of Trump, in which a gunman fired multiple shots at the former president during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 33 miles north of Pittsburgh. A former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, 50, died shielding his family from the gunfire, and two other rally attendees were injured.
The Republicans contend that there is a preponderance of politically charged rhetoric that could spur more such attacks, and specifically point to threatening words from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in March 2020: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.” Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are two justices on the high court.
At the time, Schumer was speaking at a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices heard arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, involving an abortion provider challenging Louisiana’s 2014 state law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges in hospitals within 30 miles of their facilities.
“You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he told the justices.
About a month after the May 2022 Supreme Court leak to Politico, Kavanaugh’s family discovered that in the middle of the night, authorities had arrested a man just steps from their home—26-year-old Nicholas John Roske, who had traveled from California to Maryland with the express intent of killing Kavanaugh and two other justices.
Roske told authorities that his assassination ambitions were spurred after he saw the justices’ home addresses posted online. Shortly after the leak, the radical pro-abortion group Ruth Sent Us posted the justices’ addresses and began urging protesters to go to the homes of the “six extremist justices” who likely voted for the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas, along with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
Far-left protesters from Our Rights DC and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights joined these groups in targeting the justices’ homes, even though 18 U.S. Code Section 1507 forbids picketing or parading “in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer” with the intent of intimidating or influencing that person.
Garland has acknowledged that it is a federal crime to protest outside a judge’s home with the intent of influencing that judge, but he has not enforced that law, though both Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and then Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan requested that he do so.
The Republican letter also noted that “last year, during a Senate Appropriations Hearing, Senator Katie Britt revealed that she had obtained a slide deck used to prepare U.S. Marshals for their protective details outside of Supreme Court Justices’ homes. Those slides downplayed the authority of the Marshals to arrest protesters and went as far as explicitly encouraging the Marshals to not make arrests.”
“In particular, the training slides instructed Marshals ‘to avoid, unless absolutely necessary, any criminal enforcement,’ stated that ‘making arrests and initiating prosecutions is not the goal,’” and noted that arrests of protesters should be a “last resort” and would be “counterproductive,’” the letter noted.
“In light of the incendiary rhetoric directed toward Supreme Court justices, such a limitation on the authority of U.S. Marshals is dangerous and misguided,” the lawmakers added. “Indeed, we have seen how U.S. Marshals can act decisively and professionally to prevent crime, as happened outside the home of Justice Sonia Sotomayor earlier this month.” A member of Sotomayor’s security detail shot an armed man during an attempted carjacking near her home in the early morning hours of July 5 in Washington, according to court documents, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Though it has now been more than two years since the Dobbs leak, authorities have apparently been unable to identify the leaker. In January, the Supreme Court announced in an investigative report that authorities investigating the leak have, to date, “been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence.”
The sad fact is it is nearly impossible to guard someone outside from a decent sniper, anyone.
The world record for a sniper kill shot is from over 2 miles away. How can you protect against that? You can’t.
Today’s leftists are so bereft of honor or tolerance that they cannot wait for political change (which hopefully will not occur). They have to resort to physical violence, usually without consequence due to libtard judges and prosecutors. Therefore, we have to take extraordinary measures to protect the Supreme court, political candidates, etc. We never had to take the level of care that we do today in former times, to the extent that we do. There is no honor or sense of “you can’t do THAT” in today’s libtards. It makes for a dysfunctional society.
All of them, or just the ones the secret service likes?
Hope none of them have a sloped roof.
You CAN protect a principal from a sniper 130 yards away on a bright white flat roof.
Don’t they mean:
“Safety of Liberal Supreme Court Justices Gets Renewed Scrutiny After Trump Assassination Attempt”
yes, but if you zoom out on that satellite picture of the area. Look at all those building in front of the stage off in the distance at about 1/2 mile. A decent shooter with a good scope could of hit him from ANY of those buildings in the distance.
Left activist groups and lawmakers have repeatedly threatened to restructure the court if the justices do not rule the way that these groups desire.
Communism uses many names and democrats is one of them they gave us this mess and danger we are in now
Never trust a democrat
The point is that at 400 yards he could have set up with a tripod using a real sniper rifle and good scope and not been rushed.
You don’t need military training to hit a target with a setup like that. And apparently, the SS doesn’t protect against long-range sniper attacks! What they should be using for outside events is what the used with Obama a large 3 sided wall of bullet proof glass.
I was expecting an attack on Trump but I thought they would use a drone. We have all seen how effective they are on the battlefield. Their cheep and a kid can fly them.
If a $800.00 drone can take out a battle tank imagine what it would do to a stage. The SS guys would be helpless to stop it and jumping on the VIP would be heroic but useless.
If state actors like Russia and Ukraine can't stop them I doubt the SS would fair much better.
Another mass causality event caught on live TV. We know the Iranians have the capability and would delight in giving the great satin a smack down.
All outdoor events should be cancelled until we have an effective counter to the threat.
I am just shocked how vulnerable all of our key figures are in an outside setting from a distance.
They use infrared to look in the trees. I’ve looked thru these devices before, they are amazing. Trees are naturally cool and humans are 98.6 deg F. In the winter, when there are no leaves, the problem is even simpler. Buildings with windows are the bigger issue, each one should have local LEO patrolling those. You can see clearly every deer and other animal in the woods during the day!!
That’s why we need a new Joseph McCarthy to purge our country of the Marxist disease.
It helps if you throw the book at lunatics like the cretin that went after kavanaugh. Looks like he’s finally going to trial. The prosecution needs to push for the harshest sentence allowed by law
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/19/brett-kavanaugh-trial-00169873
Schumer should be impeached if the gop-e gains the Senate.
First step — none of them should be living in DC or Maryland.
About time.
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