Brett Kavanaugh Confronted By Protestors Despite GOP Complaints

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Protesters showed up at a Morton’s The Steakhouse location in Washington, D.C., late Wednesday after a tip came in that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was dining there. The Justices, including Kavanaugh, who signed onto the opinion overturning Roe have been consistently targeted by protesters since the opinion was issued.

According to a report from POLITICO, protesters gathered outside the D.C. restaurant and placed phone calls to the manager to push for Kavanaugh to be ejected. There’s no immediately apparent indication any of the demonstrators went inside the restaurant — which is particularly relevant considering the melodramatic statement issued by Morton’s following the incident. “Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant,” the company said. “Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency.”

What kind of vitriolic animosity and lack of basic decency would be required to issue a statement claiming a supposed “right to congregate and eat dinner” in response to protesters concerned about the loss of the much more serious and relevant right to access abortion? According to POLITICO, a “person familiar with the situation said [Kavanaugh] did not hear or see the protesters and ate a full meal but left before dessert” — although he exited through the restaurant’s back door. “We hear Kavanaugh snuck out the back with his security detail. @mortons should be ashamed for welcoming a man who so clearly hates women,” a protest group called ShutDownDC said on Twitter Wednesday evening. Journalist Daniel Lippman apparently confirmed the exit out the back door.

ShutDownDC is hoping to conduct additional protests against Supreme Court Justices in the D.C. area: they’re offering financial rewards for somebody who loops them in on a confirmed sighting, and if the Justice is still there 30 minutes later, the tipster can get even more. “DC Service Industry Workers… If you see Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett or Roberts DM us with the details!” the group posted to Twitter. “We’ll venmo you $50 for a confirmed sighting and $200 if they’re still there 30 mins after your message.”

Someone on Twitter who, per context clues, seems to have shown up to the Morton’s location to protest Kavanaugh appears to have had a megaphone, so it seems not necessarily certain that Kavanaugh didn’t actually hear or see the demonstrators. Recently, there have also been protests near certain Justices’ residences, although in one recent instance a police presence confined a demonstration to the apparent entrance to a neighborhood in Virginia where Clarence Thomas resides. A protest outside Kavanaugh’s residence was apparently taking place this past Wednesday, the same night the demonstration outside the Morton’s location happened. “While the badasses @OurRightsDC and his own neighbors are gathered outside #Kavanaugh’s home, the justice seems to have snuck out for a swanky DC dinner,” ShutDownDC said Wednesday.