Usually, waiting for Congress to pass meaningful legislation is an infuriating test of patience. But lawmakers just showed us how quickly they can act when they want to do so. They also reminded us that the only time they seem to want to act is when they’re protecting themselves, not us.
The Senate just passed a bill by unanimous consent that would expand security protection for Supreme Court Justices and their families. The bill, which will now go to the House, was introduced last week after a draft of the court’s opinion overturning Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey was leaked. It passed Monday night after a weekend of peaceful protests across the country, at the Supreme Court, and at the homes of some of the conservative justices.
Those protests at justices’ homes set off another exhausting round of debate over “civility” from people who claim to support the right to protest, but only if it doesn’t make anyone too uncomfortable or inconvenienced.
please don’t protest the laws we made about your bodies at our homes because our homes are private and they belong to us.
— Glennon Doyle (@GlennonDoyle) May 9, 2022
Mitch McConnell has claimed that the protesters who rallied outside justice’s homes were “trying to scare federal judges” and others, like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, accused Democrats of “embracing mob violence.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned “threats of violence” that are purely hypothetical because they have not actually happened, at least not as part of these protests, which were entirely peaceful. In fact, the protest outside Brett Kavanaugh’s home was organized at least in part by one of his own neighbors, according to the Washington Post.
People are like “What about Kanavaugh’s poor neighbours? Why should THEY be subjected to this?” And then I found out the protest was organized -by- one of Kavanaugh’s neighbours, damn this rocks https://t.co/0L9ySeFvYo
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) May 8, 2022
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that Joe Biden “strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.”
Again, there was no violence during these protests! There were no threats, and if the mere presence of protesters outside a person’s home constitutes a “threat,” well, the Supreme Court has never had a problem with that until now, until it was their homes.
In the 90s, the court held (Madsen v. Women’s Health Center) that protesting outside people’s *private homes* was protected by the first amendment. That happens to have been the private homes of people who work at abortion clinics. Just worth remembering right now for no reason
— Freyja Katra Valentine「ENVTuber」 (@FreyjaErlings) May 9, 2022
I also haven’t seen any reports of “vandalism,” unless you count this chalk message outside Susan Collins’ home, which I definitely do not!
Imagine calling the police to investigate this lmao pic.twitter.com/dSUYXkMC7H
— Alex Peter (@LolOverruled) May 10, 2022
Even if you believe that Supreme Court Justices and their families should have increased protection, the timing of this bill as a direct response to valid, legal, peaceful protests, and the speed with which it passed the Senate, in combination with false claims and suggestions that the protesters are engaging in violence, is a slap in the face to everyone filled with fear and rage over the court’s decision to rob half the population of their reproductive freedoms.
If only Democrats would work this hard to protect us.
Joe Biden is working harder to defend Brett Kavanaugh than abortion rights https://t.co/LBUYO6x7pA
— andrea grimes (@andreagrimes) May 9, 2022
One problem with the idea that Democrats will benefit from a backlash to Roe being overturned is that the party leadership don’t seem to like the idea of there being a backlash to Roe being overturned. https://t.co/CNi6EDQpvi
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) May 10, 2022
(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
