After President Joe Biden signed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act, around-the-clock security may now be allotted to the families of high court justices amid heightened threats of violence to their homes.
The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), was passed by the House earlier this week, and the Senate approved the measure last month. The law will add an amendment to Title 40 of the U.S. Code, to provide the Supreme Court with “security-related authorities equivalent to the legislative and executive branches.”
Now, any “immediate family” members of the high court justices can be covered by the security presently provided to justices if the marshal of the Supreme Court “determines such protection is necessary,” according to the text of the legislation.
“Previously, the protection followed the justice, so, for example, if the justice traveled from their home to the court, their family at home was no longer protected. This extends that protection to their families,” a representative from Cornyn’s office told the Washington Examiner.
GUN-TOTING SUSPECT INDICTED IN ‘ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE’ KAVANAUGH
Biden’s signing of the bill Thursday came just one day after a gun-toting suspect who traveled from California to Maryland on June 8 was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home, which is located near Chevy Chase.
The suspect, 26-year-old Nicholas Roske, was allegedly motivated by his anger that Kavanaugh might help overturn Roe v. Wade in response to the May 2 leaked draft ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which signaled that a majority of the justices were poised to.
“As the president has consistently made clear, public officials, including judges, must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety or that of their families,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week, hours after the arrest of Roske.
Since the leaked draft opinion in May, protesters have converged on Kavanaugh’s home on numerous occasions, in addition to that of Chief Justice John Roberts and the draft’s author, Justice Samuel Alito. Such events followed the placement of tall nonscalable fences around the perimeter of the Supreme Court on May 4 in response to continued protests and unrest in the wake of the leak.
The U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement May 9 that officers would help to respond to “increased security concerns stemming from the unauthorized release of the draft opinion.”
“The Marshal of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Police are responsible for the protection of the United States Supreme Court and its facilities,” the statement said. “The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) has a strong partnership with the Supreme Court Police, and upon the request of the Marshal of the Supreme Court, the USMS does provide assistance as needed.”
But despite heightened security efforts, protests have still ensued outside Kavanaugh’s residence in Maryland, with multiple picketing instances since the threat by Roske.
Should any protesters violate the rules, “we will arrest them,” said Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones, whose Maryland jurisdiction includes the home of several justices. While Jones does not enforce federal law, there are “state and local laws that pertain to protests,” he told CNN on Wednesday.
“They are allowed to be in the neighborhoods, but they must continuously walk — they cannot stand specifically in front of a neighborhood with signs and bullhorns and yelling at the residents,” Jones said. “They must not block sidewalks, and they must not block the streets.”
Before the bill passed in the House on Tuesday in a 396-27 vote, Republicans accused some lawmakers across the aisle of stalling the legislation. Democrats who sat on the bill for nearly a month sought to include protection for clerks if deemed necessary.
However, plans to amend the bill were shelved by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) on Monday after Senate Republican leaders told him they wouldn’t support changes to the bill, coupled with pressure from GOP lawmakers who urged the bill to be expedited after the most recent threat to Kavanaugh.
“As all of you know, I would have preferred to move a bill which was a little more comprehensive,” Hoyer said Tuesday.
Some progressives voted “no” on the bill because they wanted additional security measures for the families of clerks and other court staff.
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The bill also received nay votes from centrist New Jersey Democrats who sought further measures to block the personal information of federal judges, such as home addresses, from being published, citing the 2020 killing of a New Jersey federal judge’s son, who was shot at the magistrate’s home.
Roske is being represented by Andrew Szekely, a federal public defender, and remains in federal custody in Maryland. His next court date has been tentatively set for June 22.
