A California man who was allegedly upset about mass shootings and the looming Supreme Court rulings on abortion and gun rights was yesterday charged with attempting to murder conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Nicholas John Roske was arrested in the early morning hours outside Kavanaugh’s house in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland while wielding a semi-automatic Glock 17 pistol, a knife and a tactical vest, according to documents filed in federal court.
Roske was sighted just outside Kavanaugh’s house by two US Marshals standing guard. He walked away and called emergency services, telling them he was feeling suicidal and had come from California to kill Kavanaugh, according to the documents.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the 26-year-old was arrested without incident by local police while he was still on the phone.
He later told police ‘that he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to abortion, as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,’ an FBI affidavit said.
‘Roske indicated that he believed the justice that he intended to kill would side with Second Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws,’ it added.
Meanwhile, US President, Joe Biden condemned the threat against Kavanaugh ‘in the strongest terms,’ the White House disclosed.
The arrest came as the court prepares to release potentially landmark judgements on politically charged cases on gun rights and abortion by the end of June.
A draft opinion in the abortion case that was leaked at the beginning of May, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, suggested that the court was poised to overturn the five-decade-old Roe v Wade ruling that said women had a constitutional right to obtain abortions.
If Alito’s draft opinion goes through with support from a majority of the justices, it will likely allow many states to immediately implement full or near-full bans on the procedure.
The prospect has sparked anger and dismay among advocates of abortion rights and led to protests at the homes of Kavanaugh, Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
After the leak and the protests, security was increased for the justices and barriers were raised around the court itself to prevent protestors from nearing the building.
‘Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices of course strike at the heart of our democracy,’ Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday. ‘For that reason last month, I accelerated the protection of all the justices’ residences, 24/7.’
Kavanaugh who is one of six justices in the court’s conservative wing, against three progressives, but he is not viewed as being as hardline as Alito or some of the others on the bench.