High court marshal seeks enforcement of anti-picketing laws
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court has asked Maryland and Virginia officials to step up the enforcement of laws she says prohibit picketing outside the homes of the justices who live in the two states.
“For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ homes,” Marshal Gail Curley wrote in the Friday letters to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and two local elected officials.
Curley wrote that Virginia and Maryland laws and a Montgomery County, Maryland, ordinance prohibit picketing at justices’ homes, and she asked the officials to direct police to enforce those provisions.
Justices’ homes have been the target of protests since May, when a leaked draft opinion suggested the court was poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.
FILE - U.S. Marshals patrol outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in Chevy Chase, Md., June 8, 2022. The Marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court has asked Maryland officials to step up the enforcement of laws she says prohibit picketing outside the homes of the justices who live in the state. The request came about a month after a California man was found with a gun, knife and pepper spray near the Maryland home of Kavanaugh after telling police he was planning to kill the justice. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-larry-hogan-maryland-c302461b0cbce9929f1ace32cfdaf686
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Supreme Court marshal asks Md. leaders to enforce anti-picketing laws
Letters asks Gov. Hogan and Montgomery County Executive Elrich to have police departments enforce laws that "squarely prohibit picketing at the homes of
Link to tweet
Supreme Court marshal presses Md., Va. leaders to stop home protests
Some officials push back against directive, calling it unconstitutional
By Jasmine Hilton and Ann E. Marimow
Updated July 2, 2022 at 4:42 p.m. EDT | Published July 2, 2022 at 12:07 a.m. EDT
Abortion rights demonstrators protest near the Chevy Chase home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Saturday, in response to letters from the Supreme Court marshal. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
The Supreme Court’s chief security officer penned letters requesting that top Maryland and Virginia officials direct police to enforce laws that she says prohibit picketing at justices’ suburban homes, following weeks of demonstrations for abortion rights. ... It was unclear, however, what impact the letters will have. Some officials argued that federal law enforcement should respond to the court’s concerns, while others cast the directive as unconstitutional. Police officials said they worked to keep justices safe while respecting the First Amendment rights of demonstrators. And protesters responded directly Saturday with an impromptu demonstration outside Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase.
Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, in four separate letters addressed to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey McKay (D), said protests and “threatening” activity had increased since May at the justices’ homes. ... “For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ homes in Maryland,” her letter to Hogan said. “Earlier this week, for example, 75 protesters loudly picketed at one Justice’s home in Maryland for 20-30 minutes in the evening, then proceeded to picket at another Justice’s home for 30 minutes, where the crowd grew to 100, and finally returned to the first Justice’s home to picket for another 20 minutes. This is exactly the kind of conduct that the Maryland and Montgomery County laws prohibit.”
[Youngkin, Hogan ask Justice Dept. to halt protests at justices’ homes]
The marshal cited Maryland law, which states that a “person may not intentionally assemble with another in a manner that disrupts a person’s right to tranquility in the person’s home” and that law “provides for imprisonment for up to 90 days or a $100 fine.” ... The Maryland letters, reviewed by The Washington Post and dated July 1, also cite a Montgomery County law that says a “person or group of persons must not picket in front of or adjacent to any private residence,” as well as a law that says a group can march in a residential area “without stopping at any particular private residence.” ... But Michael Ricci, Hogan’s director of communications, pushed back against Curley in a response Saturday afternoon on Twitter. “Had the marshal taken time to explore the matter, she would have learned that the constitutionality of the statute cited in her letter has been questioned by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office,” he wrote.
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“We are within the law,” protester Nadine Seiler said. “They’re proving us right — that we need to be out there to maintain our First Amendment right, or else we wouldn’t have it.” (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Ricci noted that Hogan and Youngkin had written previously to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “to enforce the clear and unambiguous federal statutes on the books that prohibit picketing at judges’ residences.” Garland declined, Ricci said.
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By Jasmine Hilton
Jasmine Hilton is a reporter covering crime and courts on the Metro desk. Twitter https://twitter.com/jas_hilton
By Ann Marimow
Ann Marimow covers legal affairs for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2005 and has covered state government and politics in California, New Hampshire and Maryland. Twitter https://twitter.com/amarimow
