Sam Alito is the kind of man who has the courage to do his job. Joe Biden is the other kind.
One of the few things that has held true consistently across the many decades of Joe Biden’s too-long political career is his cowardice. Biden has never defended an unpopular principle, never stuck to a belief that cost him anything politically, never done the right thing unless there was something in it for him. And so it is with the campaign of intimidation and violence directed at justices of the Supreme Court and pro-life advocates around the country.
There are questions of law here, but also questions of democratic norms that are, in the long run, more important.
Some of the legal questions are obvious enough: Firebombing the offices of Wisconsin Family Action is against the law. So is vandalizing and desecrating churches. It is also against the law to attempt to bully the Supreme Court and its justices, to act “with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty.” The First Amendment protects political speech, but it does not protect speech that is part of an effort to commit a crime — and threatening a judge with violence in an attempt to force him to change his opinion is that. As our Andrew C. McCarthy writes: “The Constitution insulates the judiciary from politics, so it is obvious that the government has a high interest in protecting the integrity of the judicial process, on which the rule of law depends, by safeguarding judges, jurors, and litigation participants from intimidation and corrupt influence (e.g., pressure to decide a case based on fear rather than on faithful application of the law).”
That this is a campaign of intimidation is plain: “If you take away our choices, we will riot,” proclaimed protesters outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either,” read the graffiti on the charred offices of Wisconsin Family Action.
It is right that the Justice Department is prosecuting the crimes associated with January 6, but, for all the talk of insurrection, the actual charges being levied against offenders from that day include illegal . . . parading. We do not mean to trivialize January 6 — we mean to say that the federal government under the Biden administration has exactly the same duty to protect the Supreme Court that the federal government under the Trump administration had to protect Congress. And the Biden administration is failing, both substantively and symbolically. Donald Trump was rightly lambasted for his obvious reluctance to criticize violence and irresponsible rhetoric among his supporters, no matter how extreme or destructive they were — but how could Joe Biden say any more for himself?
And even if Joe Biden suddenly remembers that he is president and decides to start acting like it, it is in many ways too late — it would be obvious that he is acting only out of political calculation, which is the only way he ever has acted or ever will. Where the president should be direct and full-throated, Biden has been, at best, indirect and pusillanimous. His press secretary and MSNBC pundit (we mean the press secretary who is becoming an MSNBC pundit, not the MSNBC pundit who is becoming his press secretary) said the administration “hoped” the protests would be nonviolent. They have not been. Now what?
The personalization of politics — and of political protest — in our time is a lamentable development, whether it is bullying Supreme Court justices at their homes or terrorizing Tucker Carlson’s family at his. A society in which there is no private life, no separation between the public and private spheres, is a totalitarian society — and it is a society in which civic peace is ultimately impossible. Screaming in front of the Supreme Court building is rambunctious democracy, but screaming at a Supreme Court justice from the sidewalk in front of her house is unhinged fanaticism.
It escapes no one’s notice that the anti-abortion movement is not without a history of violence at its fringes. That violence has always been roundly and unequivocally denounced, from the halls of government to the pages of this magazine, and, especially, by pro-life organizations and committed pro-life activists.
The mob at Justice Alito’s house is there for one purpose — to try to intimidate the Supreme Court. Let us be honest about this and, if the president can be bothered, behave accordingly.