The Corner
Top Senate Dem ‘Very Much’ Concerned Pelosi Hasn’t Passed Bill to Protect Families of Supreme Court Justices
On May 9, less than a week after the publication of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and in the midst of angry protests outside the Court itself and justices’ homes, the U.S. Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent to provide security for the families of Supreme Court justices.
“If the families of Supreme Court Justices have the same profile and exposure as the highest ranking officials in our government, they deserve the same level of protection,” Democratic senator Chris Coons of Delaware said at the time. “We must take threats that come from extremes on both sides of the political spectrum against Supreme Court Justices seriously, and that makes this bill an unfortunate necessity.”
But House speaker Nancy Pelosi still hasn’t brought the bill up for a vote, and the House isn’t scheduled to hold floor votes again until June 7.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate who has called protests outside the justices’ homes “reprehensible,” told CNN on Thursday that he’s “very much” concerned that Pelosi has chosen not to hold a vote on the Senate-passed bill:
Durbin said he is "very much" concerned that the House hasn't acted on a bill to protect SCOTUS justices. House has wanted to add protections to staff and clerks.
"I’m all for that, but they shouldn’t hold up the whole process to achieve that goal,” he said, per @morgan_rimmer— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 19, 2022
The House Democrats’ stated reason for holding up the bill — that they want to add funding for clerks and staff — is preposterous. It doesn’t take long to write a few lines of legislative text, and Pelosi had plenty of time to hold meaningless show votes this week.
A much more plausible reason why House Democrats are dragging their feet is that they are responding to progressive activists who expressed frustration when the Senate unanimously passed the bill to protect the Supreme Court justices’ families on May 9.