The Marshal of the Supreme Court,
Gail Curley,
has requested Montgomery County Executive
Marc Elrich
to implement a neighborhood legislation towards picketing personal properties. Two of the Justices being protested by abortion activists reside in his Maryland suburbs. But on a Wednesday press name, Mr. Elrich made the astounding declare that Ms. Curley is taking part in politics.
“If the Court majority thinks these theatrics will distract people from their shredding of the Constitution, they don’t understand how seriously we take our rights,” mentioned Mr. Elrich, who’s an elected Democrat. What an virtually unbelievable assertion. One of his constituents, Justice
Brett Kavanaugh,
was threatened final month by an armed potential murderer.
Why deliver up politics and Roe v. Wade in any respect, on condition that the difficulty is safety? “Because it’s not about security,” Mr. Elrich replied. He mentioned he discovered concerning the Marshal’s letter by way of the press, and the county nonetheless hasn’t obtained it by mail: “That seemed to me to be just basically, you know, kind of like theater, maybe a little bit of a response to the fact that we reacted pretty negatively to what the Court decision was.”
Montgomery County legislation bans picketing “in front of or adjacent to any private residence.” Marches are permitted so long as they don’t cease at any explicit homes. Ms. Curley says activists are staying on the Justices’ properties for as much as half an hour. “I’ve actually not seen any direct evidence that people have been lingering there for 20 to 30 minutes,” mentioned a county staffer, “and when we talk to our police officers, they tell us it’s not happening. So there seems to be a disagreement about the facts.” He mentioned police are attempting to maintain individuals shifting whereas respecting “a balance” with the best to protest.
Activists can bang a drum on the Supreme Court to their coronary heart’s content material. Yet in Mr. Elrich’s view, prohibiting a crowd from amassing to scream expletives at an official’s personal house can be too . . . dictatorial? “I think all you’ve got to do is look at Putin’s Russia, and get an idea of where you don’t want to go,” he mentioned. “This idea where people can’t gather together, and if you gather together, you’re going to be arrested and taken—that, it’s not happening here. And we need to make sure that people don’t use protests as an excuse for silencing opposition.”
With native leaders like this, perhaps an offended mob is coming to your neighborhood subsequent.
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Appeared within the July 7, 2022, print version as ‘The Man Who Won’t Protect the Justices.’
Source: www.wsj.com”