Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Sunday called rowdy demonstrations outside the homes of U.S. Supreme Court justices indefensible — and a federal crime.
In an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Lee said federal law "couldn't be any clearer" on the issue.
"When you show up at the residence of a Supreme Court justice in order to demonstrate, picket, parade or otherwise do the things that these people are doing, you have committed a federal crime," he asserted.
And he railed at the inaction on the issue as Maryland and Virginia have so far not acted on removing or prosecuting the demonstrators.
"It is beyond my ability to understand why it is that [U.S. Attorney General] Merrick Garland and his Department of Justice haven't investigated and prosecuted these crimes," Lee said.
"I hereby call on them to do so. If they're unwilling to do this, they're really imperiling our entire system of government, and they need to be held accountable."
Abortion rights activists began protesting outside the Maryland homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the Virginia home of Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. after the leak in May of a draft opinion indicating the court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing women the right to an abortion. The protests continued after the high court did just that.
The high court's top security officer has asked Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to enforce laws barring picketing outside the Maryland homes of high court justices, saying protests and "threatening activity" have increased.
Lee also lamented the Court's decision to allow the Biden administration to end the Remain in Mexico policy of the Trump era.
"This was a policy that helped us make our southern border secure for the first time in a long time," he said.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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