Dozens of pro-abortion protesters gathered outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in Virginia on Monday in opposition to a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion showing a majority of the court’s justices favor overruling the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
The latest protest outside Alito’s home comes two days after pro-abortion protesters marched outside the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Alito wrote the draft opinion and Roberts and Kavanaugh are among the justices in favor of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which determined the Constitution extends privacy protections to pregnant women seeking abortions.
Daily Signal producer Douglas Blair tweeted, “The marchers are almost to Alito’s house. Very few police officers.”
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin tweeted, “We have been coordinating with [the Fairfax County Police Department], [Virginia State Police] and federal authorities to ensure that there isn’t violence. Virginia State Police were closely monitoring, fully coordinated with Fairfax County and near the protests.”
Protests outside the Supreme Court Justices’ homes could violate federal law. 18 U.S.C. § 1507 prohibits “pickets or parades” in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied by a judge, juror, witness, or court officer “with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing” any of those individuals. Violators of the law can be fined and face up to a year of imprisonment.
Fox News reported the U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment about how it would handle protests outside the homes of the justices.
Virginia state law also makes it a Class 3 misdemeanor to picket outside someone’s residence.
Jack Posobiec, the editor at the conservative Human Events news website, criticized Youngkin for not taking more action to stop the protests outside Justice Alito’s home.
“Virginia law is clear right here,” Posobiec tweeted. “Picketing or disrupting the tranquility of home is expressly illegal in the Commonwealth Youngkin *allowed* an Antifa mob to break Virginia law at Alito’s home today and responded that he is ‘monitoring’ the situation.”
On Monday morning, nearly two full days after the protests outside Kavanaugh and Roberts’ homes, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted, “@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.”
At the protest outside Alito’s home on Tuesday, some participants took turns delivering speeches to the crowd from a bullhorn.
Journalist Ford Fischer tweeted, “VIDEO THREAD: Activists led by @ShutDown_DC marched to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s house to support abortion access. The 1st speaker addressed tactics: ‘They will take my rights, and they will attempt to take them away regardless of if I’m nice, and we’re nice, or not.'”
Political strategist Greg Price tweeted a video of one of the protesters speaking to the crowd. “A guy outside Justice Samuel Alito’s house says that there are ‘fake’ pregnancy centers that ‘torture poor pregnant people out of deciding to get an abortion.’”
Huffington Post editor Philip Lewis tweeted, “Happening now: Pro-choice protesters stand in front Justice Samuel Alito’s house in Virginia. Alito wrote the draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade. ‘Fuck Alito, abort the court! Fuck these fascists!’ are some chants from the crowd.”
“Crowd shouting ‘abort the court’ as they leave Justice Alito’s house,” Lewis said in another tweet.
“The protesters at Justice Alito’s house ended with a moment of silence for ‘the rights we know are ours, which are under threat, and which we are going to keep.’ ‘Abort the court! Abort the court!’ the crowd chanted as they marched away,” Fischer tweeted.
“‘Your laws ain’t shit, you can’t even find the clit!’ chanted the protesters as they marched from Justice Alito’s house,” Fischer added. “‘Alito is a coward! A stinkin’ little coward!’ ‘Alito sucks, he don’t know jack. I bet he likes Nickelback!’ ‘We’re gonna come back and shut shit down!'”
