U.S. Supreme Courtroom Marshal Gail A. Curley has penned letters to Maryland authorities, together with Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD), imploring them to “implement legal guidelines that prohibit picketing exterior of the houses of Supreme Courtroom Justices who stay” within the state, per copies of the letters tweeted by Fox Information host Shannon Bream.
In her Friday letter to Hogan, obtained by Fox Information, the marshal cites state and county legal guidelines that make picketing exterior of the justices’ houses unlawful. She first references Maryland Prison Code Legislation § 3-904 (c), which states that “[a] particular person could not deliberately assemble with one other in a way that disrupts an individual’s proper to tranquility within the particular person’s dwelling.” Marshal Curley famous that “[t]he statute gives for imprisonment for up to 90 days or a $100 wonderful or each.”
NEW: #SCOTUS Marshal sends letters to MD authorities, asking for full enforcement of state/native legal guidelines banning picketing exterior Justices’ houses. pic.twitter.com/pRGRXknL1F
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) July 2, 2022
Curley additionally cited a Montgomery County legislation, which says “[a] particular person or group of individuals should not picket in entrance of or adjoining to any non-public residence” and famous that “‘[p]icketing’ means ‘to submit an individual or individuals at a selected place to convey a message,” citing the legislation. It additionally states that protestors can move by a residence whereas marching, however they don’t seem to be allowed to cease at “any explicit non-public residence,” Curley wrote, quoting the ordinance.
Conservative justices have been subjected to protests exterior of their houses because the unprecedented Supreme Courtroom leak of a Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group draft choice in Could, which indicated Roe v. Wade may be overruled. On June 24, the official choice got here down from the court docket that did the truth is overturn the longstanding Roe choice and made abortion a difficulty for state legislators to determine. Protests exterior of justices’ houses have continued on the heels of the choice.
Abortion activists with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights maintain child dolls at the house of Supreme Courtroom Justice Amy Coney Barrett on June 18, 2022, in Falls Church, Virginia. In accordance to the Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights group, the dolls signify “compelled” births. (Nathan Howard/Getty)
In a letter to Montgomery County Government Marc Elrich, Curley referenced the identical legal guidelines.
Whereas addressing Hogan, she identified that he instructed Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) in a Could 11 letter that he was “deeply involved” over the protests exterior justices’ houses. She expressed that the demonstrations and threats have solely worsened:
Since then, protest exercise at Justices’ houses, in addition to threatening exercise, has solely elevated. For weeks on finish, massive teams of protestors chanting slogans, utilizing bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ houses in Maryland. Earlier this week, for instance, 75 protestors loudly picketed at one Justice’s dwelling in Maryland for 20-Half-hour within the night, then proceeded to picket at one other Justice’s dwelling for 30 minuets, the place the group grew to 100, and eventually returned to the primary Justice’s dwelling to picket for one more 20 minutes. That is precisely the type of conduct that the Maryland and Montgomery County legal guidelines prohibit.
On June 8, Nicholas John Roske was arrested close to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland dwelling for allegedly planning to assassinate the justice. “Police and court docket paperwork say that Roske had in his possession a Glock-17 pistol, a tactical knife, pepper spray, zip ties, and a crowbar,” Breitbart Information famous.
Curley identified that the identical day, Hogan issued a press launch wherein he expressed, “It’s critical to our constitutional system that the justices give you the option to perform their duties with out concern of violence in opposition to them and their households.”
“Maryland and Montgomery County legal guidelines present the instruments to forestall picketing exercise at Justices’ houses, and they need to be enforced at once,” she insisted.
Curley’s calls come as President Joe Biden’s Division of Justice continues to ignore a federal statute that prohibits “protests exterior the houses of judges,” as Breitbart Information reported.
U.S. Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland speaks throughout a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Associated Businesses listening to on June 9, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Photographs)
The case is Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group, No. 19-1392 within the Supreme Courtroom of america.
