White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden White House encourages protests outside of the private homes of U.S. Supreme Court justices as long as they are “peaceful.”
Pro-abortion zealots have targeted the homes of several conservative justices amid a nationwide intimidation campaign to influence the court’s upcoming Roe V. Wade decision. A leaked draft of the opinion indicating that Row V. Wade will be overturned, has sparked outrage among Democrats and protests against the justices, and Catholic churches, as well as the firebombing of a pro-life clinic in Wisconsin.
During the White House press briefing Tuesday afternoon, Psaki said that it is Biden’s “longstanding view is that violence, threats, and intimidation have no place in public discourse, and we do believe in peaceful protest.”
Psaki went on to suggest that Biden has no problem with protests outside of the conservative justice’s homes.
“I know that there’s an outrage right now, I guess, about protests that have been peaceful to date and we certainly continue to encourage that outside of judge’s homes, and that’s the president’s position,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing.
Picketing or disrupting the tranquility of a home in Virginia, where some of the justices live, and attempting to influence a judge is illegal in the commonwealth.
Code of Virginia § 18.2-419 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/8xkktRYpei
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) May 6, 2022
The press secretary attempted to compare the left’s attempt to intimidate U.S. justices at home, to occasions when people on the right have engaged in similar tactics.
“I do find it interesting,” she noted, “that there are voices on the right who have called out this—protests that are happening—while remaining silent for years on protests that have happened outside of the houses of schoolboard members, the Michigan Secretary of State, or including threats made to women seeking reproductive healthcare [abortions], and insurrection [protest] against our Capitol.”
Psaki tells Fox's @AlexandriaHoff says while Biden believes "violence, threats and intimidation…have no place," "peaceful protests" are acceptable.
She adds Republicans are "silent" on "protests" against school boards, abortion clinics, Michigan officials, & January 6 pic.twitter.com/Uou848DlG2
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 10, 2022
During the pandemic, fed-up parents in several states took a page out of the left’s playbook, and picketed outside pro-mask school board members’ homes to protest the implementation of mask mandates on their children. Parents have also showed up at the homes of school board members to protest the school district’s LGBTQ+ policies.
Left-wing groups have long protested in front of the homes of school board members, but for different reasons.
In June of 2020, for instance, activists in Oakland, California, reportedly “protested outside of two Oakland Unified school board members’ homes to urge them to eliminate the district’s police department.”
Last February, dozens of liberal activists drove to the homes of two Oakland school board members, and called on them to reconsider plan to close some schools in the district.
According to a new poll by the Trafalgar Group, a bipartisan majority of Americans frown on such tactics.
The survey, which was conducted May 6th through May 8th, found that over 75 percent of voters oppose the protests at private homes of Supreme Court justices.
The majority—52.3 percent—said they believe that the Biden Administration’s refusal to condemn the left’s push to hold protests outside of the Supreme Court Justices’ homes and would lead to “potentially unlawful or violent outcomes.”