Yesterday the Department of Justice indicted Panos Anastasiou for making threats against "Supreme Court Justices 1-6." Threats were also made against "Family Members 1 and 2" of "Supreme Court Justices 1 and 2." The indictment doesn't name who the six Justices and their family members are, but it isn't hard to figure things out. The motion to seek a detention hearing lists the specific messages that the defendant submitted through the Supreme Court's website. I will reproduce theme here, as relayed by DOJ.
January 4, 2024: "I'd like to see [Former President 1 and Supreme Court Justice 1] hanging together from an Oak tree. I'd gladly provide the rope and pull the handle."
May 10, 2024: "Subject: N***** [Supreme Court Justice 1]", "I'd like to see you have a real lynching and I'll donate the tree and pull the lever… you worthless piece of n***** shit."1
May 16, 2024: "I would have had NO reservations about walking up to [Supreme Court Justice 2] and not asking him to take it down but to put a BULLET in this mother fuckers head."
May 17, 2024: "I'm going to call and urge my fellow Vietnam veterans… to drive by the [Supreme Court Justice 2]'s house with their AR15's and when fucking [Supreme Court Justice 2] and his fucking PIECE OF SHIT CUNT WIFE are HOME spray the home of these disrespectful mother fuckers with hundreds of rounds… hopefully killing these SCUMBAG COCKSUCKERS. Hopefully N***** [Supreme Court Justice 1] and his white trailer trash n***** loving insurrectionist wife are visiting."
June 18, 2024: "I don't want to see these two corrupt mother fuckers assassinated… I'd like to see them TORTURED worse than Kim Jung Un would torture his own family. You know, like putting electrodes up their ass and on their balls, needles under their finger nails, pulling their teeth with pliers, etc etc. Make these SCUMBAGS beg for their lives."
July 1, 2024: "ASSASSINATING THESE COCKSUCKERS IS THE ONLY PANACEA… that includes the CONVICTED CRIMINAL, [Former President 1]. Again as an AMERICAN and to defend the constitution and democracy I want the assassinations by any ENTITY of the government or even a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN to commence. And PLEASE start with the assassination of the N***** and HERMAPHRODITE. As a Vietnam veteran and if I had the means and way I'd assassinate them myself. These fuckers are NOT ABOVE THE LAW."
July 3, 2024: "WE NEED MASS ASSASSINATIONS. If you're corrupt you're corrupt… don't give us this official and unofficial bullshit. You mother fuckers are UNELECTED and Americans have no trust in you. The internet is abuzz with Americans clamoring for your ASSASSINATIONS. We need to assassinate you fuckers and put your heads on a pike and use them as soccer balls. I want to be the first to kick [Supreme Court Justice 6] head down Pennsylvania Ave. You don't want to ask me what I'd like to do to the N***** and [Supreme Court Justice 2]."
July 5, 2024: "We should make [Supreme Court Justices 1-6] be AFRAID very AFRAID to leave their home and fear for their lives everyday."
Justice 1 is Justice Thomas. Family member 1 is Ginni Thomas.
Justice 2 is Justice Alito. Family member 2 is Martha Ann Alito.
And I am just going to guess that Justices 3 through 6 include Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett. I'm not sure for certain who Justice 6 is, and why the defendant wants to kick his or her head down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I am grateful that the defendant was apprehended, but these threatening messages began nearly eight months ago. Far be it from me to question law enforcement, but it seems in recent times that the government has failed to act upon threats until guns were in the vicinity of public officials. Do would-be assassins get one free shot at a Justice's ear? Are they allowed to hide for twelve hours in a bush outside the Justice's home? We know the Kavanaugh assassin was able to take a stroll past the Justice's house. I'm glad DOJ finally got around to indicting him! In the meantime, Justice Barrett needs to explain to her children why she has a bullet-proof vest.
Let me make a broader point. There is a common theme in the defendant's rants: the Justices are corrupt, they are in cahoots with President Trump, and Ginni Thomas is an insurrectionist. Where could the defendant possibly have heard such messages? Surely, one could find these comments in the dregs of social media. But these slanders are also issued repeatedly by leading Democratic lawmakers. Indeed, the entire basis of President Biden's "Court Reform" plan is that the Justices are "corrupt" and cannot be trusted. There are consequences to the rhetoric about the Court from high ranking officials.
I wish more people in positions of power would defend the Court. I praise in the highest terms a recent speech that Kannon Shanmugam delivered at Duke, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Kannon points out how public officials use language that is similar to Panos Anastasiou's, minus the racial slurs. Kannon offers some examples:
… the attacks have been accompanied by unusually toxic rhetoric. Consider statements like these:
• "The extreme far-right, MAGA majority on the United States Supreme Court is totally out of control."
• "This activist, extremist MAGA court faces a legitimacy crisis."
• "The problem is not that the Supreme Court is just conservative. The problem is that it is corrupt."
• "We must restore justice and balance to the rogue, radical Supreme Court."
• "The Supreme Court is a cesspool of corruption devastating our communities."
These statements do not come from random people; all of them come from members of Congress. And it does not take much imagination to realize what the rhetoric elsewhere looks like.
And Kannon expressly ties this sort of rhetoric with the assassination attempt against Justice Kavanaugh:
As observers across the political spectrum noted in the immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Trump, the rhetoric in American public life, on both sides, has more generally become overheated; indeed, we practicing lawyers (myself included) sometimes cross the line, too. But I believe that the attacks on the Court's legitimacy, and the accompanying rhetoric, are having two deeply concerning effects. First, as the two distinguished recent leaders of this school's Bolch Judicial Institute, David Levi and Paul Grimm, have recently warned, attacks on the legitimacy of the courts are contributing to the threat of violence against judges in general. And the same can be said with regard to the Supreme Court in particular. Most obviously, a man has been charged with the attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh after allegedly turning up at his home with a gun and other weapons. (The man has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.) Others have recently been charged with or detained for making threats against the Chief Justice and Justice Barrett. It is impossible to draw a direct link between the attacks on the Court's legitimacy and any of these recent alleged crimes. But when even members of Congress are threatening that Justices will "pay the price" and "won't know what hit them" if they issue decisions reaching certain outcomes, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the rhetoric around the Court's legitimacy risks adding to the problem.
Kannon is exactly right. As we are told over and over again, words have consequences.
And I only wish more members of the Supreme Court bar would be so vocal in speaking out on this issue. They make a lot of money off of the Court. Certainly their firms, and clients, would appreciate even a modest defense of the Justices.
The same charge goes to the Department of Justice. I'm looking right at you Attorney General Garland. You are quite fond of criticizing former-President Trump, whom your special counsel is trying to convict, but criticism should also be targeted at your boss. Ditto for Solicitor General Prelogar, who should spend a little less time sitting with Vanity Fair, and spend more time explaining why her boss's proposal would be so destructive for the Court. One wonders if any other Attorney General would ever approve of such a puff piece about the Solicitor General.
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