A Georgetown University law professor made an outrageous comment on Twitter Sunday night seemingly justifying mobs of pro-abortion activists targeting Supreme Court justices’ homes.
Josh Chafetz received his B.A. from Yale University, his doctorate in politics from Oxford and his J.D. from Yale Law School, then worked on the faculty at Cornell Law School for 12 years before moving to Georgetown University.
On Sunday night, Chafetz tweeted, “The ‘protest at the Supreme Court, not at the justices’ houses’ line would be more persuasive if the Court hadn’t this week erected fencing to prevent protesters from coming anywhere near it.”
“And before the ‘oh so you support J6 lmao!’ trolls show up, the difference is *substantive*. When the mob is right, some (but not all) more aggressive tactics are justified. When not, not,” he added.
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Chafetz was harshly criticized for his remarks:
This tweet of his is the culmination of being too online, too extreme, and, most importantly, too unwilling to admit a bad take. A series of frantic double downs ending with him basically implying that something like the Capitol riot would’ve been fine if only it hadn’t been MAGA
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) May 9, 2022
If only I had justified mobbing justices’ homes instead of criticizing their selection by race and gender… pic.twitter.com/FabzB1kqTM
— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) May 9, 2022
I guess Josh Chafetz won't be posting his home address to test his "hey, simply showing up at someone's house is perfectly fine and reasonable" statement.
How sad. He seemed to have such strength of conviction. 🤔 https://t.co/TdgkpocbEF pic.twitter.com/JQo1dYrCem— Tripp Whitbeck (@trippwhitbeck) May 9, 2022
As The Daily Wire reported on Monday, “Over the weekend, pro-abortion rights activists marched to the homes of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh.”
“Bearing signs and chanting slogans, the group marched from Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to Chief Justice John Roberts’ residence about a half mile away,” Bloomberg reported. “The protesters then returned to Kavanaugh’s before police ordered them to disperse.”
These are pro-abortion activists outside of Judge Kavanaugh’s home.
This is crossing the line and unacceptable.
This type of intimidation and harassment has no place in America.
Stay strong, Judge Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/fpWMkrBSE0
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) May 8, 2022
Douglas Blair, a news editor for The Daily Signal, witnessed the protests at Kavanaugh’s home over the weekend. He told Fox & Friends on Monday, “This is an attempt at intimidation.”
“I did not see Justice Kavanaugh,” he added. “My hope is that he wasn’t home. My hope is that he was safe with his family somewhere else because it was genuinely one of the scariest things I’ve ever witnessed. Watching these people yell and scream and try and change the vote of what is most possibly the most important vote in the history of this country: the right to live your life and to have a human being survive in the womb.”
A local resident who helped organize the protest told Bloomberg, “The time for civility is over, man. Being polite doesn’t get you anywhere.”
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to condemn any incipient protests at justices’ homes, saying, “I don’t have an official U.S. government position on where people protest. We want it, of course, to be peaceful.”
But after the protests, Psaki suddenly expressed concern, tweeting that President Biden “strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.”
.@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) May 9, 2022