Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is among two dozen GOP state attorneys general who are calling on the Biden administration to step up efforts to protect conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, Moody signed on to the letter written to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
In the letter, the state law enforcement officials noted pro-abortion activists have gathered outside some justices’ homes since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion indicating the court would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision upholding the legality of abortion. The letter maintained these protesters showed up “in the hope of pressuring the Justices to change their votes.”
“As a former federal judge and the current head of the Department of Justice,” they said to Garland, “you must surely appreciate the unique risks to both judges and the rule of law when judges are targeted at their homes. That is why Congress has long barred ‘picket[ing] or parad[ing]’ near a judge’s home ‘with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice.’”
They called on Garland to “uphold the rule of law.”
“Their strategy is already in full swing, with protestors yelling ‘You don’t care if people die’ while picketing outside the homes of Chief Justice [John] Roberts and Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh this past weekend.”
Demonstrators have also protested Catholic Masses, the latter said, based on the religious faith of several of the justices. Among the conservatives, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Amy Coney Barrett are all Catholics.
The state officials then recounted recent threats and violence by pro-abortion radicals, includng the firebombing of the headquarters of pro-life groups in Wisconsin and Oregon.
“There are those who would seek to legitimize such acts of violence as ‘Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests,’” the letter stated. “You should not be so cavalier.”
The signers pointed to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal that argued Garland must act on the violence against pro-life advocates.
“You were quick to respond to the purported ‘threat’ of parents speaking out at local school board meetings (though the basis for your threat assessment was shaky to say the least),” the signers said. “Here, in the face of escalating extremism directed at the judicial branch, you have an obvious role to play.”
Congress, the state officials noted, “recognized that pressuring judges to change their votes by protesting outside their homes directly threatens the rule of law.”
“You profess to share those concerns, having unequivocally stated that attacking a courthouse ‘to prevent judges from actually deciding cases’ plainly constitutes ‘domestic extremism, domestic terrorism.’”
“You can and should act accordingly by faithfully executing federal law to prevent protestors from attempting to intimidate the Justices of the Supreme Court, both to protect the Justices and to safeguard the rule of law,” the letter concluded.
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