Ted Cruz shouts over Merrick Garland about the DOJ's response to protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes
- Sen. Ted Cruz pressed AG Merrick Garland over the DOJ's response to protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes.
- Garland testified that he ordered more than 70 US Marshals to provide nonstop security to the justices and their families.
Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland over his response to the protests that erupted outside of several of the Supreme Court justices' homes last spring following a leaked opinion that showed the conservative majority was ready to toss out abortion rights.
The Texas Republican condemned the protestors as rioters and extremists organizing harassment campaigns against the justices and accused Garland of inaction.
"The Department of Justice under this president was perfectly happy to refuse to enforce the law and allow threats of violence," Cruz told Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice.
Cruz questioned Garland particularly on whether the DOJ had charged anyone in connection to the protests, pointing to a federal statute that prohibits picketing or parading outside near judges' homes with the intent of influencing them.
Garland, a former longtime federal judge, disputed Cruz's characterization that the DOJ failed to respond to the protests, noting that he took historic steps to protect the justices and their families by ordering more than 70 US Marshals to provide non-stop security to them.
The back-and-forth grew heated as Cruz repeatedly shouted over and interrupted Garland as he tried to answer whether any protestors had been arrested and how the DOJ enforces the statute. Garland responded that the US Marshals' No. 1 priority is to defend the lives of the justices, but isn't aware of any cases that have been brought against protestors.
"Can I answer the question?" Garland said at one point.
"No, you cannot, you have refused to answer the question," Cruz responded.
Wednesday's hearing, Garland's first before the 118th Congress, comes as Republicans have widely accused the DOJ and FBI of becoming politicized. Those criticisms heightened after FBI officials searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home related to an investigation over his potential mishandling of classified documents. Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith in November to oversee the probe.
As it relates to culture wars, Republicans have also accused the department of helping tech companies censor conservative voices on their platforms and of showing bias against parents involved in school curriculum fights, anti-abortion groups and churches.
Cruz began his questioning on Wednesday by criticizing the DOJ as politically motivated and claimed that Garland disagreed with the Supreme Court's June 24 ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, that overturned Roe v. Wade.
"Your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias," Cruz said.
Garland firmly rejected Cruz's criticisms of the DOJ and defended the agency's work and its employees. "I believe the men and women of the department pursue their work every single day in a non-partisan and appropriate way," the attorney general said.
Other Republicans on the committee, including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, similarly raised concerns about DOJ's handling of the protests outside Supreme Court justices' homes last year.
"It's very clear that they're trying to influence in one way or another those serving on the United States Supreme Court," Lee said. "And yet not one person, to my knowledge, has been prosecuted for such things."
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last summer that extended security protections to the Supreme Court justices' families amid the protests and after an armed man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home was arrested for threatening to kidnap or kill him.