The January 6 Committee’s Next Assignment?

At the rate things are going we wonder if the next congress will have to establish its own select committee to investigate another effort to disrupt a sacred governmental process — the Supreme Court’s deliberations over whether to overturn Roe v. Wade. The thought comes to mind as mobs of protesters begin to target the homes of Supreme Court justices and start screaming obscenities.The ugliness of these protests has been flickering across American television and computer screens for days, without a single statement of condemnation from any Democratic leaders. Not President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. We wonder if someday Congress will have to subpoena documents and emails of these worthies. The Court is a coequal branch of government, even when it comes to threats and intimidation. The night the leak came to light, crowds gathered outside the court and chanted “fascist scum have got to go.” That threat has now expanded, with a liberal group, “Ruth Sent Us,” publishing the addresses of the court’s six conservative justices online. The group explains “we must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics.” This is the language of thuggery and of force, not persuasion. If the January 6 riot targeted the chambers of the House of Representatives, then over the weekend it was the house of Kavanaugh that came under threat from protesters chanting “no uterus, no opinion.” And not only his. In front of Chief Justice Roberts’s residence, protesters chanted “the whole world is watching.” One leader of the gatherings said “If you take away our choices, we will riot.” We have heard from Republicans more condemnation of the events of January 6 than from Democrats regarding this offensive against the court, which itself follows the shocking leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft memo. While the level of violence has not yet risen to the level of that dark day, it does not take a consultation with the Oracle at Delphi to discern the rage gathering on the horizon. When pressed by Fox News’s Peter Doocy on whether the President condemns this residential targeting, press secretary Jennifer Psaki could only offer mincing words. “The president’s view,” she said, “is that there’s a lot of passion, a lot of fear, a lot of sadness from many, many people across this country about what they saw in that leaked document.” Imagine if President Trump had said such a thing.This is a moment that cries out for the leadership that only the president can provide, unconstrained by the commitment to discretion that mutes the ability of the Nine to defend themselves in the court of public opinion. Nevertheless, as Justice Clarence Thomas recently intoned, “We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want.” “Insurrection” is a crime that is notoriously difficult to define, and nobody has yet been charged with it in the aftermath of January 6. However, as some have noted, 18 USC § 1507 is not hard to define. It prohibits picketing and protest that interferes with or obstructs justice “with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty.” It applies to both courthouses and judges’ houses. No one is denying anyone the right to peaceful protest. There is no need to scout the penumbras or parse metaphysical readings of constitutional amendments to discover that the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government are enumerated in American law. These protests are something else entirely and deserve to be marked for what they are — intimidation, interference, and illegal.

The January 6 Committee’s Next Assignment?

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