House to vote on Senate-passed bill to provide security to Supreme Court justices’ family members

WASHINGTON — The House is set to vote Tuesday on Senate-passed legislation that would provide security to family members of Supreme Court justices, which comes nearly a week after an armed man was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house.

The Supreme Court Police Parity Act, sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, would provide security that’s similar to protections that currently exist for family members of certain executive and legislative branch officials. The Senate passed the bill last month with unanimous support.

Lawmakers, especially Republicans, have been calling for urgent action after the incident outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home last week in which a 26-year-old man from California, Nicholas Roske, was arrested, armed with a handgun, a knife, pepper spray and burglary tools. He said in a 911 call that he came with the intent of killing Kavanaugh because of the leaked draft opinion suggesting the high court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade. Law enforcement agencies have been warning about potential violence in advance of the official opinion expected to be released in the next few weeks.

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An advisory from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., late Monday said the House would vote on the Senate-passed measure after House Democrats had been considering a slightly different version that would have extended security protections to Supreme Court employees as well.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday threatened to block that version in the Senate.

“The right bill passed the Senate, we’re not going to pass this House bill if it comes over,” McConnell told reporters Monday afternoon, “They need to take up the Senate bill that Senator Cornyn sent them and pass it.”

When the bill passed the Senate, Hoyer said, “We believe that it is critical to safeguard the families of those who choose to serve their country and their communities as judicial clerks and staff as well.”

McConnell, however, said the protections should not go to “nameless staff that no one knows.”

Roske said last week on the call to 911 that he found Kavanaugh’s address by looking at images that were shown in the media. After the leaked draft of the abortion opinion came out in early May, protesters demonstrated outside several justices’ homes including Kavanaugh, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the leaked draft.

Frank Thorp V and Kyle Stewart contributed.