The law on parity of the Supreme Police Court was approved by unanimity, which means that no senator objected to its speedy adoption. The bill must also be passed by the House before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
The pressure in Congress comes a week after the Politico bomb leaked a draft opinion showing that the Court is ready to overturn Rowe v. Wade next month.
Sensor John Cornin, a Republican from Texas, and Chris Koons, a Democrat from Delaware, introduced a two-party bill called the Supreme Court Police Parity Act.
“Last week’s events have heightened the focus on the families of Supreme Court judges, who unfortunately face threats to their safety in today’s increasingly polarized political climate,” Cornin said in a press release ahead of the bill Monday night. “We must act to ensure that judges and their families are protected from those who want to harm them by extending the Supreme Court’s police security to family members.
“If the families of Supreme Court judges have the same profile and exposure as the highest-ranking officials in our government, they deserve the same level of protection,” Koons added in the statement. “We must take seriously the threats that come from the extremes on both sides of the political spectrum against judges of the Supreme Court, and that makes this bill regrettable.”
The U.S. Marshals Office said in a statement Monday that it was helping to address “increased security concerns stemming from unauthorized disclosure of the draft opinion.”
“The Marshal of the Supreme Court and the police of the Supreme Court are responsible for protecting the United States Supreme Court and its facilities,” the statement said. “The US Marshals Service (USMS) has a strong partnership with the Supreme Court Police and, at the request of the Marshal of the Supreme Court, the USMS provides assistance as needed.”
While the USMS confirmed that it was assisting the Marshal of the Supreme Court, it declined to comment on specific security measures.
On Monday night, ShutdownDC hosted a vigil in front of the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the expired draft opinion, and over the weekend, abortion protesters gathered in front of the private homes of Judge Brett Cavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts in Chevy Chase. , outside of Washington, DC. While the protests in the country are mostly peaceful, law enforcement officials in the nation’s capital are preparing for potential security risks. An 8-foot, scalable fence was erected around parts of the Supreme Court building last week, and teams erected concrete barriers from Jersey blocking the street in front of the courthouse.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stepped up protests in front of some judges’ homes, saying they may be “completely illegal”, citing a federal law criminalizing pickets intended to influence a judge.
“The attempt to intimidate federal judges into ruling in a certain way is far beyond the speech or protest of the First Amendment; it’s an attempt to replace the rule of law with the rule of the crowd, “the Kentucky Republican said in a Senate address Monday.
This story and title were updated with further developments on Monday.
CNN’s Betsy Klein and Whitney Wilde contributed to this report.
Add Comment