Police arrest armed man near Brett Kavanaugh's home who wanted to kill justice over abortion
UPDATED at 2:20 p.m. ET: Law enforcement identified the California man who was arrested near the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday morning as Nicholas John Roske of Simi Valley. He was found with multiple weapons including a gun, knife and pepper spray. Roske is being charged with attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice.
Original report:
A man was arrested near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after making threats against the justice due to his likely support for overturning Roe v. Wade.
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The unnamed individual from California is in his 20s, and was detained by police after saying he wanted to kill Kavanaugh and expressed anger over the likely overturning of Roe,according to The Washington Post.
The man was arrested around 1:50 a.m. Wednesday near Kavanaugh's home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and was found carrying burglary tools and at least one weapon.
“I call on leaders in both parties in Washington to strongly condemn these actions in no uncertain terms,” said Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in a statement. “It is vital to our constitutional system that the justices be able to carry out their duties without fear of violence against them and their families.”
Last month Georgetown professor Josh Chafetz tweeted support for protesters to demonstrate outside the homes of Supreme Court justices with whom they disagree: “When the mob is right, some (but not all!) more aggressive tactics are justified,” The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that Chafetz also boasted that the university wasn't "going to fire" him over his social media posts regardless of how extreme or controversial they might be.
In a statement emailed to supporters on Wednesday, the pro-life group Created Equal demanded that prominent Democrats condemned this and other threats made by abortion-rights extremists.
“Today, an abortion advocate apparently acted on the incendiary words of Sen. Chuck Schumer that Justice Brett Kavanaugh ‘will pay the price,’” stated the group, referencing comments Schumer made in 2020.
“I want to tell you, Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch, you have unleashed a whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said at the time. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
The pro-life group warned that the “inflammatory rhetoric of the Left is leading to violence, and urged the Biden administration to "publicly call for abortion advocates to turn down the temperature.”
Last month, Politico published a leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito for the case Dobbs v. Jackson, which had the high court overturning Roe by a vote of 5-4.
The Dobbs case centers on if Mississippi can ban most abortions after 15 weeks into a pregnancy, which contradicts the Roe precedent of prohibiting states from banning abortions before fetal viability.
Although Politico noted that the draft majority opinion was from February and had likely been changed, the news sparked several protests, and numerous acts of vandalism and torching of buildings owned by churches and pro-life pregnancy resource centers.
May demonstrations have been held outside the homes of Supreme Court justices who are expected to rule in favor of the Mississippi law, with the members of the high court receiving increased security.
A security fence was also constructed last month around the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., in preparation for any violence should the high court decide to overturn Roe.
