It's now been over 100 days--101 to be precise--since the Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion was leaked, leading to protests outside the homes of conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, which had resulted in Justice Samuel Alito having to leave his home. A suspect is even facing federal charges for an assassination plot against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Yet we still don't know who the leaker is. Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) is looking to call out Democrats for endangering the justices in such a way, with a $10 million ad campaign this week, according to Alex Sowyer with The Washington Times.
??NEW AD ??
— JCN (@judicialnetwork) August 11, 2022
Merrick Garland is the Attorney General of the United States.
Instead of cowering to the woke mob, he should uphold the rule of law, protect the justices, and defend the Supreme Court.
Merrick Garland was bad for the Court then and bad for the Court now. pic.twitter.com/pHpg9mWA32
The first ad, released on Thursday morning, targets Attorney General Merrick Garland, highlighting how Garland and Justice Kavanaugh worked together for 12 years as "colleagues" and "friends" before continuing on to note "now one is being harassed, threatened, even an armed assassin was after him."
"The other," the ad's narrator says, referring to Garland, "could stop it, but doesn't." The narrator later points out that as the attorney general, Garland "should uphold the rule of law, protect his former colleagues and the Court" and claims that "instead, he's cowering to the woke mob."
In closing, the narrator warns viewers that "Merrick Garland: bad for the Court then, bad for the Court now."
Garland was nominated by then President Barack Obama in March 2016 to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, though then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not move to confirm a nominee until President Donald Trump took office and nominated Neil Gorsuch, who ultimately was confirmed as an associate justice in April 2017.
Sowyer's reporting included a statement form JCN President Carrie Severino. "Merrick Garland has consistently bowed to the radical left’s agenda, whether it’s calling concerned parents ‘domestic terrorists’ or suing states for protecting the unborn," she said, bringing up other priorities of the Department of Justice (DOJ). "What the Attorney General is clearly *not* doing is enforcing a federal law designed to protect judges at their homes, as mobs of protestors continue to harass six of the Court’s justices at their homes, even after the attempted assassination of Brett Kavanaugh," she continued.
Severino was also quoted in Mary Margaret Olohan's reporting for The Daily Wire about the leak, and also earlier on Wednesday wrote for National Review, "The People Want Attorney General Garland to Enforce the Law."
Last month, JCN released a poll with CRC Research showing that voters aren't too pleased with inaction from the Biden administration, and that it could cost them in the midterms. This includes fellow Democrats.
While before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray was unable to satisfactorily answer questions from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and seemed to imply that arrested protesters illegally outside of the homes of justices was not as high a priority for them.
During the exchange, Sen. Cotton shared he was "very disappointed that the Department of Justice and FBI didn't take these protests themselves seriously. As I said, they led to a Democratic hit man showing up and trying to assassinate a sitting Supreme Court justice."