WASHINGTON — For the protesters chanting loudly outside Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s home, incivility was the point.They said they wanted to impinge on his privacy with picket signs and chants of “We will not go back!” to condemn the Supreme Court justice’s apparent support for ending the constitutional right to privacy that has guaranteed access to abortion since Roe v. Wade was decided nearly 50 years ago.“We can be noncivil,” insisted Lacie Wooten-Holway, a 39-year-old teaching assistant who has been protesting regularly outside the home of her neighbor, Justice Kavanaugh, since October. She called it “absolutely insane” that the court might dictate what women do “with the only literal home we’ll have for the rest of our lives, which is our bodies.”But the protests outside the homes of several justices, which erupted after the leak of a draft opinion indicating the court’s conservative majority is ready to overturn Roe, has sparked another searing debate about appropriate forms of protest at a moment of enormous upheaval in a deeply polarized country.Though they have been largely peaceful, the protests at the homes of Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. have drawn criticism from Republicans, who angrily accused Democrats of improperly pressuring the court. Justice Clarence Thomas said the court’s conservatives were being “bullied.” Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, called for the protesters to be prosecuted criminally.Those critiques have drawn a fierce rebuke from supporters of abortion rights, who point to years of protests by abortion opponents in front of abortion clinics and the homes of doctors. And they accuse Republicans who defended the Jan. 6 attackers at the Capitol of hypocrisy for being suddenly gripped by concern about passionate protesters.Many of the protesters have expressed concern that the scrutiny over the protests has distracted from the real issue — restricting a woman’s right to have an abortion — that has prompted the demonstrations. The administration has expressed similar concerns.But the debate underscores the divisions in a country that cannot even agree on how or when to protest its disagreements. And it foreshadows a potentially more confrontational period this summer if the court issues a final opinion that overturns the right to abortion.The White House has tried to balance both sides of the debate.Asked about the protests outside justices’ homes last week, Ms. Psaki said she did not have “an official U.S. government position on where people protest,” adding that President Biden wanted “people’s privacy to be respected.”After an outcry from critics of the protests at justice’s homes, Ms. Psaki said on Twitter that while the president believed in the right to protest, “that should never include violence, threats or vandalism.”From Opinion: A Challenge to Roe v. Wade
Commentary by Times Opinion writers and columnists on the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Gail Collins: The push to restrict women’s reproductive rights is about punishing women who want to have sex for pleasure.Jamelle Bouie: The logic of the draft ruling is an argument that could sweep more than just abortion rights out of the circle of constitutional protection.Matthew Walther, Editor of a Catholic Literary Journal:Those who oppose abortion should not discount the possibility that its proscription will have some regrettable consequences. Even so, it will be worth it.Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan: If Roe falls, abortion will become a felony in Michigan. I have a moral obligation to stand up for the rights of the women of the state I represent.“Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety,” she wrote.On Wednesday, as tensions simmered, the Justice Department directed U.S. Marshals to help “ensure justices’ safety.”ImageFairfax County police monitored the protests near Justice Alito’s house.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesMany Democrats have shrugged off criticism that the protests are inappropriate, noting that protesters often demonstrate outside their homes as well. But Senator Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called protesting outside the homes “reprehensible.” And the Senate passed a bill this week to provide security for the immediate relatives of the nine justices if the Supreme Court marshal deems it necessary.Ms. Wooten-Holway said she tried to abide by a set of rules: The protest must remain peaceful and remain on public property outside Justice Kavanaugh’s home, where she said attendees bearing ponchos and signs crowded into the tree-linedBy: Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Title: A Battle Over How to Battle Over Roe: Protests at Justices’ Homes Fuel Rancor
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/us/politics/abortion-protests-supreme-court-justices.html
Published Date: Thu, 12 May 2022 22:54:02 +0000
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