Psaki Refuses to Condemn Protests outside Justices’ Homes, Accuses GOP of Hypocrisy for Calling Out Intimidation
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday refused to condemn the mob protests that have converged outside the six conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes in the last week in response to the leak of a draft opinion that would reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling that legalized abortion on the national level.
“So I know that there’s an outrage right now I guess about protests that have been peaceful to date and we certainly continue to encourage that outside of judges’ homes and that’s the president’s position,” Psaki told reporters during a press briefing.
Psaki implied that many Republicans are hypocrites for decrying the protests outside the justices’ homes when they’ve supposedly ignored or cheered on similar activity by conservatives in the past, citing the January 6 Capitol riot and the parent-led protests for curriculum transparency at school board meetings this past year.
“The president’s longstanding view has been that violence, threats, and intimidation of any kind have no place in political discourse. And we believe of course in peaceful protest. What I do find is interesting is that there are voices on the right who have called out this protest while remaining silent for years on protests that have happened outside the homes of school board members, Michigan secretary of state, or including threats made to women seeking reproductive health care, or even an insurrection against our capitol,” she added.
For multiple days now, angry crowds have marched in front of the justice’s residences in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C., holding signs and yelling pro-abortion slogans. For instance, on Monday night a demonstration was held in front of the home of Justice Alito, who penned the majority draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would overrule the Roe precedent.
On Saturday, roughly 100 pro-abortion protesters marched outside the homes of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh for “reproductive freedom.”
When a reporter asked Psaki during a Monday press conference why the Biden administration would condone the unrest outside the justices’ homes when there is a federal statute on the books which prohibits picketing judges’ homes to influence trials, she replied, “We’re certainly not suggesting anyone break any laws.”
Last week, the leftist grassroots group Ruth Sent Us, which claims to uphold the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, published what it claimed were the home addresses of the Court’s six justices online in preparation for an organized “walk-by protest” outside the justices’ homes scheduled for the following week.
Left-wing protestors dressed in costumes from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale crashed Mother’s Day mass at multiple Catholic churches in D.C. and in other cities last Sunday in an attempt to make the point that the justices’ ruling was driven by bigoted religious biases.
“Whether you’re a ‘Catholic for Choice,’ ex-Catholic, of other or no faith, recognize that six extremist Catholics set out to overturn Roe,” Ruth Sent Us tweeted.
Since the protests erupted, Supreme Court security details have been on high alert to potential threats of violence to the justices. On Monday night, the Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent to provide security to the family members of Supreme Court justices.
