Gee, maybe Merrick Garland should have put more effort into enforcing 18 USC 1507, eh? Better late than never, but it was almost too late:

A California man carrying at least one weapon near Brett M. Kavanaugh’s Maryland home has been taken into custody by police, after telling officers he wanted to kill the Supreme Court justice, according to people familiar with the investigation. …

Two people familiar with the investigation said the initial evidence indicates the man was angry about the leaked draft of an opinion by the Supreme Court signaling the court is preparing to overturn Roe. v. Wade, the 49-year-old decision that guaranteed a person’s constitutional right to have an abortion. He was also angry over a recent spate of mass shootings, those people said.

This is one major reason that Congress passed 18 USC 1507 in the first place. It explicitly forbids demonstrations at the homes of federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, in part to provide them security against angry mobs and malevolent individuals. There is no legitimate grassroots demonstration function in regard to the judiciary, and Congress rightly acted to protect judges against intimidation campaigns.

Instead of doing his job, Garland stalled while Chuck Schumer actively encouraged the illegal actions targeting Kavanaugh and other Supreme Court justices. What’s more, Nancy Pelosi has stalled legislation that would have provided more security for SCOTUS justices in the wake of those illegal intimidation campaigns encouraged by Schumer and ignored for a time by Garland:

McConnell's office is now citing this as reason for House Dems to pass the bipartisan Supreme Court Police Parity Act, which passed easily in Senate.

The bill would do more to protect the families of justices. https://t.co/WCfjN4P3lZ

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) June 8, 2022

In this case, police got lucky with a tip about the perpetrator. They caught him before he made it onto Kavanaugh’s property. But will police get lucky the next time while Democrats dither on additional security for Supreme Court justices in this environment? And will Schumer apologize for encouraging this madness, even knowing it was explicitly illegal?

Stand by for more developments as they come.

Update: McConnell pushed his demand out onto social media shortly afterward:

This morning’s disturbing reports are exactly why the Senate unanimously passed a Supreme Court security bill weeks ago. But House Democrats have inexplicably blocked it. House Democrats need to stop their blockade and pass this uncontroversial bill today. pic.twitter.com/wd8UB5RDvm

— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) June 8, 2022

Also, the group that doxxed Supreme Court justices in the wake of the Dobbs leak insists that they bear no responsibility for this attempted attack. However, they’re pretty thin-skinned about it:

We are committed to non-violence.

Fundamentalists will talk non-stop about how our peaceful protests inspired this, rather than the daily mass-murders in America. 😏

Oh, what was this “weapon” the “California man” had? If it was a gun or even a knife, police would say so. 😏 pic.twitter.com/tTDk2OFxVN

— Ruth Sent Us 🪧 (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022

Police say it was both a gun and a knife. Maybe you should wait for details before issuing stupidly snide statements to defend your doxxing. https://t.co/LilXfmi4Hp

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) June 8, 2022

BWA-HAHAHAHAHA.

Pussies. pic.twitter.com/ynBNpbzHys

— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) June 8, 2022

John also got blocked, as did others who dared to criticize the doxxing radicals of Ruth Sent Us. John will almost certainly have more on this later, so again, stay tuned.

Meanwhile, let’s get this reminder of the doxxing effort that took place into this post as well:

At one point, the website had actually linked two specific house addresses. RuthSentUs never responded to my inquiry, and Google eventually removed the map & addresses for Terms of Service violations.https://t.co/HmbHG37Klz

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) June 8, 2022