WATCH: Dick Durbin Calls Out GOP Senator For Holding Up Bill That Would Protect SCOTUS Justices

Since the Supreme Court took away one of the most basic healthcare protections that women around the country rely upon, in a move that puts not only everyone with a uterus, but everyone who might ever need to make a private healthcare decision, at risk, they haven’t been given much peace. Conservatives accuse Democrats of endangering the Justices — but on Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader called out right-wing obstructionism blocking protections that could be in place.

Republicans have been conflating protests and genuine violent threats — the latter of which have been widely condemned across the political spectrum, including by Democratic leaders. Despite bipartisan agreement that the Justices and their families should be safe from threats, Republicans continue to accuse Democrats of refusing to protect SCOTUS.

Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) responds:

Sen. Majority Whip Durbin (D-IL) responds to Sen. Grassley (R-IA) calling on Dems to condemn threats against judges:

“One of the most important bills…would give the Supreme Court police greater discretion in protecting the justices…and the person holding it up is [Rand Paul].” pic.twitter.com/V0I4GmUn9S

— The Recount (@therecount) July 12, 2022

“I’m sorry to say that one of the most important bills, Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, which would give the Supreme Court police greater discretion in protecting the justices and their families…has been held up on the floor, and I can say the person holding it up is a Junior Republican Senator from Kentucky…lives are at risk as we fail to put this into law…”

The “Junior Republican Senator from Kentucky” is Rand Paul.

The full bill Durbin is talking about is here, and includes provisions for protecting private identification information about Justices, among other things, citing threats:

In recent years, partially as a result of the rise in the use of social media and online access to information, members of the Federal judiciary have been exposed to an increased number of personal threats in connection to their role. The ease of access to free or inexpensive sources of covered information has considerably lowered the effort required for malicious actors to discover where individuals live and where they spend leisure hours and to find information about their family members. Such threats have included calling a judge a traitor with references to mass shootings and serial killings, calling for an “angry mob” to gather outside a home of a judge and, in reference to a judge on the court of appeals of the United States, stating how easy it would be to “get them”.

This bill was introduced a year ago, with threats against Federal judges on the rise. CBS reported shortly before this on an incident in which an individual targeting Judge Esther Salas shot her husband and son. Her son did not survive the attack. Investigators further learned that the assailant had additional weapons and ammunition stored in a locker — along with a file of information on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomay0r.

There have been no actions on the bill reported since December.