Newly revealed documents show that US Marshals assigned to protect Supreme Court justices’ homes following the reversal of Roe v. Wade last year were directed “not” to arrest protesters “unless absolutely necessary.”

The instructions were included in a series of training slides used to prepare Marshals for their assignments, which were obtained by a Justice Department whistleblower.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) unveiled the slides during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

One slide instructed the Marshals to “avoid, unless absolutely necessary, any criminal enforcement” involving protesters and that “making arrests and initiating prosecutions was not the goal” of their being stationed outside the residences of the court’s six conservative jurists.

Another slide directed Marshals not to “engage [in] protest-related enforcement” and to allow protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights, except to protect the justices and their families.

During the hearing, Attorney General Merrick Garland insisted that Marshals were empowered to decide in the field whether to make arrests, but Sen. Britt pointed out that the training slides heavily discouraged them from doing so.

Britt also asked Garland if he was aware of these materials before his March 1 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to which Garland replied that it was the first time he had seen the slide deck.

The high court’s 6-3 ruling overturning the landmark Roe decision legalizing abortion nationwide on June 24, 2022, sparked protests and rallies that soon spread from the Supreme Court building to the nation’s streets and eventually to the conservative justices’ homes outside Washington.

On more than one occasion, protesters stood outside Justice Clarence Thomas’ residence shouting “no privacy for us, no peace for you.”

A California man, Nicholas Roske, was arrested outside of Kavanaugh’s home in early June by US Marshals after he hatched a plot to kill the justice following the leak of Alito’s draft opinion the previous month.

It is worth noting that federal law makes it illegal to picket or parade near a judge’s residence with the intent to interfere, obstruct, or impede the administration of justice.

Conservatives and Republicans are repeatedly demanding Garland explain why no protesters were arrested or charged under the statute this past summer.

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