A man armed with a gun was arrested outside of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home on Wednesday morning, according to multiple news reports.
The California resident, Nicholas John Roske, 26, was arrested at about 1:50 a.m. after arriving by taxi near the justice’s house. He told law enforcement officers at the scene that he wanted to kill Kavanaugh, reported the Associated Press.
According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the incident, the man said he was motivated by the leaked draft opinion suggesting that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.
At a press conference previously scheduled to address the federal investigation into the school shooting in Ulvade, Texas, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the threat to Kavanaugh’s life.
"This kind of behavior, it's obviously behavior that we will not tolerate," Garland said. "Threats of violence and actual violence against the justices of course strike at the heart of our democracy. We will do everything we can to prevent them and hold people who do them accountable.”
Protesters and activists have been gathering outside the homes of some of the justices since the the leak of the draft opinion, prompting the Department of Justice to authorize“around the clock security” at their homes.
Roske was arrested a block away from Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase home by members of he U.S. Marshals Service and the Montgomery County Police department after he called 911. CNBC reported that he told the operator he had an “unloaded gun, in a locked case, in his suitcase.” He is now in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement warning of a "heightened threat environment” stemming “from lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances.”
The arrest came as Supreme Court watchers were on high alert for the release of the Court’s opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that is seen as a challenge to Roe v. Wade. Hours later, the Court released an opinion unrelated to that case.
