Blame Game: Top Senate Dem Slams House Dems for Failure To Protect Supreme Court

Democratic Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) on Thursday faulted House Democrats for slow-walking a bill that would provide security for Supreme Court justices.

Durbin said he is “very much” concerned that the House has not moved to pass the bill, which the Senate approved in order to bolster security for justices and their families following protests outside their homes in the wake of reports indicating the Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. House Democrats inserted a poison pill into the bill, the Washington Free Beacon reported, stalling its passage by including provisions to extend security to all of the Court’s clerks. Pelosi has not scheduled a vote on the bill, and the House is not slated to hold floor votes until June 7, according to National Review.

Durbin said he is “all for” protections for clerks, but “they shouldn’t hold up the whole process to achieve that goal.”

The holdup in boosting justices’ security comes as the Homeland Security Department warned of the heightened potential for violence against members of the Court over the abortion issue.

The Democratic chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Va., where Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett live, refused a request from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R.) to block protests around justices’ homes. The Free Beacon reported on Friday that the chairman, Jeff McKay, had police officers posted outside his own home after he allegedly received threats.