Ruth Sent Us, a pro-abortion rights protest group that allegedly published the home addresses of the six Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices in May, has reportedly backtracked on some of its tactics after a California man was charged in the failed assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Shortly after federal law enforcement officials arrested Nicholas John Roske, 26, early Wednesday morning, and subsequently charged him with attempted murder, the Ruth Sent Us group temporarily shut down its website and then denied publishing, or doxxing, the justices' addresses altogether.
As part of its rationalization, following Roske's arrest, Ruth Sent Us — with its entity name an apparent homage to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the longtime Supreme Court justice who passed away in October 2020 — then tweeted out: "Armed man called the police on himself. He didn't even go to Kavanaugh's street.
"No matter how much you wish it, it just wasn't a serious assassination attempt, so it's not getting media attention."
According to CBS News, around 1 a.m. EDT on Wednesday in the state of Maryland, Roske called the Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center and informed the dispatcher that he had a gun in his suitcase, was suicidal, and had traveled from California to kill Kavanaugh.
U.S. Marshals assigned to protect Kavanaugh eventually took Roske into custody. According to court documents, CBS News noted, Roske was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision to possibly overturn Roe v. Wade.
Roske also reportedly feared that Kavanaugh would vote to overturn gun laws in the United States.
Citing various reports, Roske had a Glock 17 pistol, ammunition, a knife, zip ties, pepper spray, duct tape, and other items in his possession at the time of the arrest — which occurred at approximately 1:50 a.m.
If convicted of attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice, Roske could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, according to CBS News.
Later on Wednesday, but apparently prior to shutting down its website, Ruth Sent Us released a statement saying that it was "committed to nonviolence."
The group also claimed it had no role in Roske's failed assassination attempt, but would continue to protest outside Kavanaugh's home in the future.
According to reports, in May, Ruth Sent Us published a Google Map on its website that contained the precise home addresses for Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, along with the residential streets of Justices Kavanaugh, Alito, John Roberts, and Amy Coney Barrett.
"Where the six Christian fundamentalist Justices issue their shadow docket rulings," the map stated.
Ruth Sent Us sent multiple tweets this week, claiming the justices' residential information had been widely available on Twitter.
Google ultimately removed the map for violating its terms of service.
According to Federal Election Committee filings, the Ruth Sent Us website was registered by Sam Spiegel, the treasurer for Unseat PAC, a political action committee that raised $377 in 2017.
Also, the P.O. Box listed in Unseat PAC's FEC filings is "the same as the one listed in Ruth Sent Us's website registration," according to records first reported by the Federalist.
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