U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants Attorney General Merrick Garland to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as to why the Justice Department is not enforcing federal laws intended to protect officials after an explosion of liberal violence and death threats aimed at U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Cruz asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to have Garland testify at a July 12 committee hearing on the court’s recent ruling overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and returning jurisdiction over abortion laws to the states.
That ruling, which was leaked weeks before, created a nationwide explosion of arson attacks against pro-life groups and crisis pregnancy centers, as well as multiple death threats against Supreme Court justices and at least one arrest for a planned assassination.
Durbin refused the request, and Garland did not testify.
“18 U.S.C. § 1507 criminalizes any attempt to influence a judge in the exercise of his or her duties by picketing them at their home. Congress passed this law to allow judges at every level of the judiciary the freedom to exercise their judicial power free from outside influence or intimidation,” said Cruz in the letter requesting Garland’s testimony.
“Article III of the Constitution guarantees judicial independence by granting judges life tenure and salary protection so they are not influenced by anything but the law and facts in the case before them,” said Cruz. “Unfortunately, despite clear evidence that federal law was violated by mobs of protestors at the Justices’ homes, the head of the Department of Justice, and chief law enforcement officer of the United States, flatly refused to enforce federal law,” Cruz noted.
Cruz wants to know why Garland has refused requests from the governors of Maryland and Virginia and the Supreme Court Marshal to enforce the law after multiple threats against justices.
“On June 8, 2022, a would-be assassin, armed with a pistol and a knife, was arrested outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He later admitted he intended to kill the Justice. Intimidation attempts have also occurred at the homes of Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Barrett and Chief Justice Roberts,” wrote Cruz. “In response to these threats, Attorney General Garland merely stated, ‘The Justice Department will not tolerate violence or threats of violence against judges or any other public servants at work, home, or any other location.’”
“Attorney General Garland’s refusal to act, however, calls into question the sincerity of this statement,” Cruz pointed out.
Cruz notes that while Garland refuses to take action to protect Republican-appointed justices from death threats, he was quick to send federal agents to question parents who threatened to run election campaigns against local liberal school board members.
“Attorney General Garland was quick to condemn parents who attended school board meetings to protest radical policies pushed by some board members. Yet he has shown little urgency to protect Supreme Court Justices despite calls from the Supreme Court Marshal and multiple governors to do so. Attorney General Garland should be asked, under oath, why he refused to act in this instance, as well as detail his plans to uphold judicial independence and the rule of law in the face of future such intimidation campaigns,” said Cruz.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Donny Ferguson is a professional fundraiser and organizational manager. Born and raised in Texas, he has lived in Washington, D.C. for 16 years. Ferguson also served as Senior Communications and Policy Adviser in the United States House of Representatives, operating one of Capitol Hill's most effective media operations.
Theyre IN ON IT
They are all hypocrites
The whole Biden Administration is not following the laws of the USA Constitution.
Can you, in your wildest imagination, see this taking the same path if the protests, threats, and assassination attempts had been focused on liberal judges?
Good for Cruz, and why has not EVERY republican on Capital Hill not risen in loud, vocal protest? I guarantee you the democrats would have.
Let’s make sure to make this mob rule Democrat party accountable this November for their refusal to obey the law in protecting judges and other public officials who do not agree with them.
You go Ted!!! This is all BS and it’s going to come out. We have very few fighters up there right now, but you are one. I know it is hard given the climate, but don’t give them an inch.
No where in the Book of Marx, is there any reference to the CONSTITUTION, BILL OF RIGHTS, for the “we the People”! DEMOCRAT SOCIAL COMMUNIST, DESPISES EVERYTHING ABOUT AMERICA! The UNITED STATES of AMERICA! They Full well Know what there doing! What they don’t understand is What will Happen!
I’d like to know why Dick Durban refused his request. Sounds like he’s for the breaking of those laws as well. The democrats have become the party of crime and pursue criminality as well as those they release from jail, take up bail collections for, and well they even are behind all the baby killing that’s been going on. Women don’t own those babies you know. People haven’t been able to own other people for 180 years or something like that. We fought a war so that a bunch of people could be ungrateful for most of that time. Anyway, these democrats suck and anybody that voted for them is just as guilty as they are.
Intimidation of the Supreme Court Justices by the Democrats is a serious issue that the Democrats are refusing to discuss in spite of calls by the Supreme Court Marshall and some Governors to do so. The matter should not just be swept under the carpet as the Democrats wish to do. It is essential that the Republicans do not let go of it and, in the event they win the majority in the mid-term elections, it should be brought up before the legislature.