AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
- Senators condemned an abortion-rights protest held outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley called the demonstration a “blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary.”
- “SHUT UP AND PASS SOME LAWS,” the protest’s organizers said in response.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Both Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday condemned an abortion-rights protest staged outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh the night before.
Around 50 demonstrators marched to Kavanaugh’s residence in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to rally against the Supreme Court’s recent move to maintain a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
The nation’s high court handed down its 5-4 decision on September 2, with Kavanaugh voting in the majority. Protestors on Monday evening called for Kavanaugh’s resignation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, addressed the rally during a hearing on Tuesday.
“This protest looks like another blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary and anyone who disagrees with the radical agenda pushed by partisan advocates,” Grassley said.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the committee, also denounced the protest.
“Politics ain’t beanbag. We all know that you have to have a tough mental hide to be in this business,” Durbin said Tuesday. “But it’s absolutely unacceptable, from my point of view, to involve any major public figure’s family or their home or to involve yourself in criminal trespass in the name of political freedom of speech.”
Durbin added that protestors should consider other methods, such as the ballot box, to have their voice heard.
“There are proper venues to express yourself,” he said. “I don’t believe a person’s home or their family should be fair game in this business.”
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont also weighed in on the matter, arguing that “trying to intimidate family, anything like that, is wrong.”
ShutDownDC, which organized the event, blasted the Democratic senators over their criticism and urged them to pass legislation that would protect reproductive health rights.
“The truth is, if Durbin, Leahy, and the Democratic majority in the US Senate did their jobs, we wouldn’t need to go to Brett Kavanaugh’s house,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “So today our message to Durbin, Leahy, and their buddies in the Senate Democratic Caucus is, SHUT UP AND PASS SOME LAWS.”
The Supreme Court has received immense public criticism for not blocking the Texas abortion law. The court’s majority argued in an unsigned opinion that its ruling was not based on the substance of the Texas law, which could still be legally challenged. The justices will consider a major case this upcoming term on the constitutionality of abortion, which could potentially upend Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
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