On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to answer a basic question about whether or not he would be prepared to prosecute protesters who are attempting to intimidate Supreme Court justices outside their homes.
As reported by Just The News, there is a federal law on the books that strictly forbids coordinated efforts to intimidate judges. U.S. code 1507 states that anyone who “pickets or parades” in the vicinity of “a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer,” with the clear “intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer,” will face a fine, or be “imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”
As such, Governors Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) and Larry Hogan (R-Md.), in whose states the majority of Supreme Court justices currently reside, have asked Garland’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce the law by arresting and prosecuting such protesters. Republican lawmakers have made similar demands.
But at an event on Friday at the National Mall for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, when Garland was asked about enforcing this law, he simply responded “Sorry. I’m here for the memorial.”
Ever since the news was first leaked in early May that the Supreme Court is preparing to overturn the controversial 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, hundreds of radical, far-left protesters have doxxed the home addresses of six of the Supreme Court justices. There have been numerous pro-abortion protests outside their homes in an attempt to intimidate the justices into changing their minds before the final ruling is made official.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, involves the state of Mississippi passing a law to ban all abortions after 15 weeks. The leaked draft, written by Justice Samuel Alito, appears to have the support of five of the nine justices. The draft suggests that the court’s majority will completely overturn both Roe and the similar 1992 ruling Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and will instead return the question of abortion back to the individual states. Oral arguments in the case were heard in December, and the draft was dated to February. The decision was originally set to be announced in June, but may be released sooner as a result of the leak and subsequent protests.