Issa, Jordan Press DOJ on Security Measures for Supreme Court Justices Amid Heightened Political Tension
Washington – Today, Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-48), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a briefing on the DOJ’s efforts to increase security for Supreme Court justices.
This inquiry follows the assassination attempt on President Trump at a rally in Butler, PA, and in response to heightened political tension, threats, and inflammatory rhetoric toward the justices of the nation’s highest court.
An excerpt from the letter:
“In recent years, left-wing groups and partisan activists have been unrelenting in their attacks on the Court and its independence. For example, in 2019, Senate Democrats threatened the Court in an amicus brief that it would be ‘restructured’ if the Court did not decide a case in the manner they preferred. In March 2020, the Senate Democrat Leader went to the steps of the Court and threatened specific justices by name for their official actions: ‘I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.’
“Following the leak of the draft Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May 2022, conservative justices faced relentless protests at their homes, seemingly intended to influence the Court’s decision. Radical left-wing groups engaged in prolonged harassment and intimidation campaigns outside justices’ homes. One radical group published the home addresses of the six Republican-appointed justices with the intent of stirring up organized harassment at their residences. Another radical group went as far as offering bounties for the “'ocation of the six Supreme Court Justices who voted [ ] to overturn Roe v. Wade.' In June 2022, a man showed up to the home of Justice Kavanaugh with weapons to allegedly kill Justice Kavanaugh because he was upset over the Court’s decision in the leaked draft opinion. The man had on him a handgun, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, and other gear to ‘remove some people from the Supreme Court,’ in order to ‘stop Roe v. Wade from being overturned.’
“Accordingly, 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. 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. Please arrange for this briefing to occur as soon as possible, but no later than August 6, 2024.”
Read the whole letter here.