Republican senator from Kentucky and senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has urged the Justice Department thoroughly to investigate protesters from multiple pro-choice groups who have been descending on the homes of US Supreme Court Justices after a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade was leaked, reported Fox News.
"The past week has witnessed the spectacle of coordinated intimidation against Supreme Court Justices. After the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, agitators have descended on the homes of Supreme Court Justices in an overt attempt to change the course of that pending litigation," McConnell wrote in a letter to attorney-general Merrick Garland.
According to McConnell, the protests violated federal law, namely Section 1507 of the Criminal Conduct Code, which makes it a crime to "picket or parade … with the intent of influencing a judge … in the discharge of his duty … in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge."
McConnell slammed the pro-choice protesters as "mobs", saying that their actions "meet the elements of that crime on their face."
"The Department of Justice should investigate and charge violations of Section 1507 as appropriate. There is one solution to the rule of the mob and that is the rule of the law," said McConnell.
According to the GOP senator, the Joe Biden administration has failed to take the demonstrations more seriously. McConnell pointed to the zeal with which Democrats have been probing everything connected with the attack on the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters on 6 January 2021. He urged the attorney-general to give the current protesters the same attention he had "admirably given to other recent episodes of intimidation", such as the 6 January riots.
"Where the mob descends on the US Capitol or Chevy Chase, it’s up to responsible law enforcement to stop it. I expect you are up to that task," stated McConnell.
Ever since a leaked draft opinion from the US Supreme Court had revealed the justices voted possibly to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade decision that "protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction,” pro-abortion activists have been protesting at Catholic churches and the homes of justices.
They slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - a Democrat representative of California's 12th Congressional district - for lack of action and demanded she "investigate the corrupt justices" and "save abortion".
A majority of the justices had voted to overturn the landmark precedent from the Roe v Wade case which, since 1973, has allowed abortion throughout the United States without excessive government restrictions.
If overturned, it would have a major impact in US states that have previously indicated their intention to restrict or ban abortion.