Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is paying a price for authoring a draft opinion that was leaked last week in which he and four other justices appear to be on the verge of overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
For the sake of safety, Alito has reportedly been moved to a location that will not be revealed, according to Breitbart.
Last week, Alito canceled an appearance at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ judicial conference. Although no official reason was given for the cancellation, the move came only days after fierce protests greeted the leak of the opinion.
On Saturday, protesters demonstrated outside the homes of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Escalating protests came amid escalating rhetoric from Democrats.
“This is 50 years of rights in a leaked opinion where Justice Alito is literally not just taking us back to the 1950s, he’s taking us back to 1850s,” Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Sunday, according to The Hill.
Last week, a bill titled “Supreme Court Police Parity Act,” was introduced by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, according to Fox News.
“We must act to ensure justices and their families are protected from those who wish to cause them harm by extending Supreme Court police security to family members,” Cornyn said.
Amid the national polarization taking shape, a few voices called for calm, but were largely met by scorn from abortion’s advocates.
“[N]o one should be threatening violence against a Supreme Court justice or against any member of Congress,” Democratic Sen. Chris Muphy of Connecticut said, according to USA Today, adding that “any threats of violence are beyond the pale.”
The draft opinion, as leaked by Politico, said “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”
The draft opinion said that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and a subsequent 1992 decision called Planned Parenthood v. Casey were both wrong.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.