The D.C.-area home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is being targeted by protesters after the emergence of a draft majority opinion from the court that would overturn the nationally established right to an abortion, although a woman who’s leading these protest efforts — Lacie Wooten-Holway — has been involved in these protests since before the draft opinion emerged. There’s still time for the opinions of individual Justices to shift before the court releases its final opinions, but Kavanaugh was one of the five Justices who supported the drafted majority opinion.
In response to a recent complaint from someone who supported the cause but opposed showing up outside Kavanaugh’s house, Wooten-Holway said: “I organize peaceful candlelit vigils in front of his house… We’re about to get doomsday, so I’m not going to be civil to that man at all.” If the leaked draft opinion or something like it is imposed, the overturning of the Supreme Court’s prior decision in Roe v. Wade would mean that handling abortion access would be left up to state leaders, including the fiercely anti-abortion Republicans currently in power around the country. Dozens of states could see strict abortion restrictions imposed, affecting millions upon millions of people.
A stolen, illegitimate, and far-right Supreme Court majority appears set to destroy the right to abortion, an essential right which protects the health, safety, and freedom of millions of Americans. There is no other recourse. We must expand the court.
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) May 3, 2022
As for the protests targeting Kavanaugh’s residence, a range of locals have evidently expressed opposition — some told Wooten-Holway that “this kind of protest is disrespectful in a place they believe should be a private, family-friendly escape from bitter Washington politics,” as The Washington Post recaps. But others are in support, and another protest was planned for what seemed to be this Saturday. Wooten-Holway’s first protest outside Kavanaugh’s house was last October, and she led that effort — which involved a little over half a dozen people — after also protesting in D.C. against Kavanaugh’s original nomination by Trump to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the protest effort planned for this Saturday was also set to target a nearby home of Chief Justice John Roberts, another Republican-appointed judge on the U.S. Supreme Court who has not been reported to have been in support of the original draft opinion but whose support — or lack thereof — could either shore up or undercut an eventual majority view.
When the Senate votes to codify Roe next week, I will vote yes.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) May 6, 2022
Wooten-Holway also organized neighborhood protests after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments late last year in a case involving a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi — which is the case that provided the backdrop for the leaked majority opinion, in January in tandem with the 49th anniversary of the court’s original Roe decision, and in March, which was international women’s month. Asked this past week about planned protests outside Supreme Court Justices’ homes, Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki remarked: “I don’t have an official U.S. government position on where people protest. I want it — we want it, of course, to be peaceful. And certainly, the President would want people’s privacy to be respected. But I think we shouldn’t lose the point here: The reason people are protesting is because women across the country are worried about their fundamental rights that have been law for 50 years. Their rights to make choices about their own bodies and their own healthcare are at risk. That’s why people are protesting. They’re unhappy. They’re scared.”
The Senate should immediately abolish the filibuster and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, codifying Roe v. Wade as law and protecting the right to an abortion from the stolen Supreme Court majority.
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) May 3, 2022
