The Washington Post editorial board rightly condemned the leftists who marched on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home on Monday night as a “reprehensible” violation of the judge’s privacy. It’s a shame this even needed to be said.
A group of more than 50 protesters tracked down Kavanaugh’s suburban Maryland home and began marching outside of it to protest the Supreme Court’s recent decision on Texas’s pro-life law. They chanted for Kavanaugh to resign and held signs that read, “Safe abortion is a human right,” and, “My body, my choice.”
#NOW: In the streets of Chevy Chase, a Washington suburb. Protesters are marching on Justice Kavanaugh’s house with banners and a sound system after his refusal to block Texas’ near-total abortion ban along with four of his colleagues. pic.twitter.com/YnBlzrMxjm
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) September 13, 2021
As the Washington Post pointed out, this is just the latest example of protesters targeting the “homes, families, and private lives of politicians and other public figures” with whom they disagree. This trend is troubling — not just because it’s a departure from basic civility, as the Washington Post says, but because it serves a very specific purpose. These radicals want government officials to feel intimidated and nervous about what might happen if they don’t do exactly what the mob wants. They want Kavanaugh to know they’re not afraid to make this personal — that they know where he and his family live and that they can easily come back to his house if they want.
Right-wing activists are also guilty of using this kind of fear tactic. But it is undeniably true that leftists get away with this behavior far more often. Indeed, Kavanaugh has been the target of countless protests since his nomination to the bench. Some of these protests became so unruly that police had to arrest hundreds of the protesters involved. In October 2018, for example, police arrested more than 300 leftists after they broke through Capitol Police barricades during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. And yet, the protests continued for days afterward, and most Democrats couldn’t be bothered to say anything against them.
Thankfully, the Washington Post and a few Democratic politicians have spoken out against leftists’ latest targeting of Kavanaugh. But more of the Left needs to be willing to stand up to its most radical activists’ madness, or else it will become commonplace.
