Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says that the leak of his early draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade put him and the other justices at risk of being assassinated.
Justice Alito said that the leak led people to believe that the vote could be stopped if one of the majority votes was killed.
“The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us,” Justice Alito said while speaking at the Heritage Foundation, according to a report from The Guardian.
Soon after the leak, a far-left extremist group called Ruth Sent Us published the home addresses of the conservative justices.
For weeks, protesters flocked to their homes to protest in their front yards, with little condemnation from liberal media and politicians.
During the event, Justice Alito also pointed to the man who showed up at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with the intention of assassinating him.
The justice also addressed claims that the court is lacking integrity over the ruling, including from Justice Elena Kagan.
“Everybody is free to criticize our reasoning, and in strong terms … But to say the court is exhibiting lack of integrity is something quite different,” he said.
Justice Alito continued, “someone also crosses an important line when they say that the court is acting in a way that is illegitimate. I don’t think that anybody in a position of authority should make that claim lightly.”