A law professor urged the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately release its ruling on a Mississippi abortion case this week as threats of violence against the conservative justices and pro-life advocates escalate.
Authorities reported an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh early Wednesday morning and, in mid-May, moved Justice Samuel Alito and his family from their home to a secure location due to violent threats.
Both incidents — along with three arson attacks on pro-life organizations and dozens of cases of vandalism, threats and other hostilities — have occurred since Politico broke news last month about a leaked draft ruling showing the high court overturning Roe v. Wade this summer.
Responding in a column Wednesday at Reason, constitutional law professor Josh Blackman of South Texas College of Law Houston said the court should issue an order “immediately” in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case because of the mounting threats.
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“Every day that goes by, and Dobbs remains undecided, is a day that the lives of the Justices and their families are at risk,” wrote Blackman, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and president of the Harlan Institute. “… The Justices should send a clear and unequivocal message that they will not be intimidated by these acts of violence.”
The leaked draft ruling showed five of the nine justices agreeing to overturn Roe through the Mississippi abortion case. However, the draft is not final, and no one knows for sure when the high court will issue its final ruling on the case.
In the mean time, Hot Air blogger Allahpundit warned that a pro-abortion fanatic could assassinate one of the conservative justices to prevent the court from overturning Roe.
“[I]n the current political context, a fanatic has more motive to kill one of the Court’s conservatives than just satiating his or her rage,” the conservative blogger wrote soon after the leak. “Doing so would provide a strategic benefit to the pro-choice side. …”
This week, he added: “When you have reason to believe that five justices have signed onto overturning Roe but the decision hasn’t been handed down yet, that’s an incentive to take one of those votes away by any means necessary. Especially since a Democratic president would get to fill the vacancy.”
Blackman said he does not know why the ruling has not been released yet but pointed to a quote from Chief Justice John Roberts, a moderate, as one possible reason.
“The work of the Court will not be affected in any way,” Roberts said in response to the leak in early May.
Blackman speculated:
Perhaps Roberts thinks that by deviating from the normal course, the Court would be sending a signal that the leak did affect the Court’s business. If so, Roberts continues to live in a different reality than the rest of us. Justice Kavanaugh nearly faced an assassination attempt. A group bearing the name of Ruth Bader Ginsburg advertises nightly protests outside of his home. Similar protests are scheduled outside of the homes of other Justices. Their lives have been turned upside down. All of the other Justices are at similar risk. The way to ensure that the Court “will not be affected in any way” is to decide a case as soon as it is ready, and remove the threat that someone will try to deprive the majority of the fifth vote.
The U.S. Marshals and Department of Justice have increased security for the justices, their staff and families. In mid-May, the U.S. Senate also unanimously passed a bill to increase security measures for the high court, but the U.S. House, which is controlled by pro-abortion Democrats, blocked the bill.
Days after a leaked draft ruling showed the Supreme Court overturning Roe, the pro-abortion group Ruth Sent Us published the addresses of the conservative justices’ homes online publicly. Since then, abortion activists have held a number of illegal protests outside their homes.
According to Axios, a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security warned that radical abortion activists may burn down or storm the Supreme Court building and murder justices and their law clerks if the court overturns Roe. The report indicates these pro-abortion extremists also plan to target churches and other places of worship with violence and vandalism.
LifeNews also reported last week about the leftist pro-abortion group Shut Down D.C., which plans to blockade the streets around the Supreme Court building June 13 in an attempt to shut it down.
At least three pro-life organizations have been the victims of arson in recent weeks, and there have been dozens of acts of vandalism, assaults and threats against pro-lifers and churches.
Some pro-abortion groups have been calling for churches, especially Catholic Churches, to be the target of abortion activists’ outrage.
“The leaked draft memo that states the Supreme Court has struck down #RoeVWade is an ATROCITY but It is not yet law & doesn’t have to be, but what they plan to do & will do if WE don’t stop them. Rise up! & RAISE HELL!” the group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights wrote on Twitter.
Even prominent pro-abortion groups are using words that hint at possible insurrection and violence. On Twitter, Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, said abortion activists will be “ungovernable” until the government legalizes abortion on demand.
The Supreme Court is expected to release its final ruling on the Dobbs case this summer, likely later this month.
Since Roe in 1973, more than 63 million unborn babies and hundreds of mothers have died in supposedly “safe, legal” abortions.
