Armed man who made threats to Brett Kavanaugh arrested near Supreme Court justice’s home

A man with at least one weapon was arrested near the Maryland home of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and threatened to kill him, according to The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the investigation.

A suspect with “at least one weapon and burglary tools” was detained on a nearby street early on Wednesday in Montgomery County, according to the report, which claims that the man was angry about a forthcoming decision on the 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade and abortion access in the US.

A statement from the Supreme Court’s public information officer to The Independent also reports that a man was arrested at 1.50am.

“The man was armed and made threats against Justice Kavanaugh,” according to spokesperson Patricia McCabe. “He was transported to Montgomery County Police 2nd District.”

A spokesperson for Montgomery County law enforcement told The Independent that officials are still collecting information related to the arrest.

The arrest comes as the nation’s high court begins to issue more than two dozen rulings in a range of cases, including Dobbs v Jacskon Women’s Health Organization; a leaked draft of the opinion shows that the court’s conservative majority will overrule the Roe ruling and its affirming ruling in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v Casey, which affirmed constitutional protections for abortion access.

Abortion rights demonstrations outside the court and the homes of conservative justices and legislators have demanded that the justices maintain the rulings and urged officials to codify protections into law. The end of Roe is likely to make abortion care illegal or largely inaccessible in roughly half the US.

A memo from the US Department of Homeland Security also issued warnings about threats of violence related to the Dobbs case and the end of federal protections for abortion care.

The Supreme Court building – currently surrounded by fencing – has been closed to the public since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and justices have no longer issued their opinions from the bench; opinions are published on the court’s website on opinion-issuance days, and audio from oral arguments is broadcast live from the website.

One opinion was issued on 8 June. It is unclear whether Justice Kavanaugh was in the building at the time.

This is a developing story and will be updated