The law on parity of the Supreme Police Court was approved by unanimity, which means that no senator objected to its speedy adoption. The bill must also be passed by the House before it goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
The pressure in Congress comes a week after the Politico bomb leaked a draft opinion showing that the Court is ready to overturn Rowe v. Wade next month.
Sensor John Cornin, a Republican from Texas, and Chris Koons, a Democrat from Delaware, introduced a two-party bill called the Supreme Court Police Parity Act.
“Last week’s events have heightened the focus on the families of Supreme Court judges, who unfortunately face threats to their safety in today’s increasingly polarized political climate,” Cornin said in a press release ahead of the bill Monday night. “We must act to ensure that judges and their families are protected from those who want to harm them by extending the Supreme Court’s police security to family members.
Koons added in the statement: “If the families of Supreme Court judges have the same profile and exposure as the highest-ranking officials in our government, they deserve the same level of protection. We must take threats that come from extremes on both sides of the political spectrum against judges of the Supreme Court seriously, and that makes this bill unfortunately necessary. “
Over the weekend, abortion protesters gathered in front of the private homes of Judge Brett Cavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts in Chevy Chase, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. While nationwide protests have been largely peaceful, nationwide law enforcement officials are preparing for potential security risks. An 8-foot, scalable fence was erected around parts of the Supreme Court building last week, and teams erected concrete barriers from Jersey blocking the street in front of the courthouse.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stepped up protests in front of some judges’ homes, saying they may be “completely illegal”, citing a federal law criminalizing pickets intended to influence a judge.
“The attempt to intimidate federal judges into ruling in a certain way is far beyond the speech or protest of the First Amendment; it’s an attempt to replace the rule of law with the rule of the crowd, “the Kentucky Republican said in a Senate address Monday.
This story and title were updated with further developments on Monday.
CNN’s Betsy Klein and Whitney Wilde contributed to this report.
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