On the day President John F. Kennedy was killed, a right-wing group called the “American Fact-Finding Committee” ran a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News accusing JFK of being a crypto-communist and being “in favor of the spirit of Moscow.”
That ad, in addition to other right-wing protesters who were opposed to Kennedy, led to initial speculation Kennedy had been killed by a conservative assassin. As it turned out, the fatal bullet was fired by a man who was more in line with “the spirit of Moscow” than of the John Birch Society — but never mind.
Imagine if, on the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, members of the American Fact-Finding Committee showed up at Dealey Plaza with anti-Kennedy placards. What would the reaction have been? You don’t even need to ask: Even the most strident right-winger would consider it appalling.
The best that can be said for the protesters outside of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home on Wednesday evening is that 26-year-old Nicholas John Roske didn’t kill him in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Sure, he was detained with a gun, a knife, pepper spray and burglary tools, according to NBC News. Sure, as The Washington Post noted, police said the man was “upset” by the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade and “stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice.”
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And sure, he was inspired by other left-wing protesters who have gathered outside Kavanaugh’s house in recent weeks to intimidate the judge and his family. (The Western Journal has chronicled how other media sources have ignored the threat this creates — and has implored politicians and press outlets to condemn it. If you support our coverage, please consider subscribing.)
None of this means, however, that the rabble would take the night off of loudly protesting outside of Kavanaugh’s home. And, as is too often the case, the protesters made sure to include a sly bit of anti-Catholic bias, chanting, “Keep your rosaries / off of our ovaries!”
Now: Abortion Rights Activists return in rain to Brett Kavanaugh’s home, continuing their month’s long marathon of protests at SCOTUS homes. @RuthSentUs @OurRightsDC @downrightimp Their story: https://t.co/seYszDafoN pic.twitter.com/TjtJX7DjhW
— DCMediaGroup (@DCMediaGroup) June 9, 2022
There were other chants, mind you, including those referencing the sexual assault claims made against Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings in 2018:
“Hey Hey, ho ho! The rapist has got to go!”
Tonight activists continued to march outside of Kavanaugh’s house.
Higher police presence after this morning’s unrelated incident where an armed man called police on himself here and was charged with attempted murder of the Justice. pic.twitter.com/TDRcX3A3ve
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) June 9, 2022
However, the anti-Catholic chants were of note because footage of the protests was extensively retweeted by “Ruth Sent Us,” a pro-abortion group that drew condemnation after they called for aggressively protesting outside Republican-appointed justices’ homes in the days following the leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health on May 2.
Not only was Ruth Sent Us in favor of mobbing Supreme Court justices’ homes, the group has been oddly fixated on the Catholic faith of the conservative judges on the high court, including Kavanaugh. Given that context, the “keep your rosaries / off our ovaries” chant doesn’t sound so innocent or accidental:
There are calls for a #MothersDayStrike. We support it, along with @StrikeForChoice who’s planning a day of walk-outs on Thu May 12. #DefendRoe
This is what Mother’s Day should look like. Catholic and Evangelical Churches nationwide: pic.twitter.com/BxvGhBGodn
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) May 3, 2022
Whether you’re a “Catholic for Choice”, ex-Catholic, of other or no faith, recognize that six extremist Catholics set out to overturn Roe. Stand at or in a local Catholic Church Sun May 8. #WarOnWomen #MothersDayStrike pic.twitter.com/v2vtpd12Gp
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) May 3, 2022
Stuff your rosaries and your weaponized prayer.
We will remain outraged after this weekend, so keep praying.
We’ll be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries. pic.twitter.com/1UxAkyuXTg
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) May 7, 2022
The group has also been focused on Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s reported membership in a primarily Catholic charismatic religious group called People of Praise. Just hours after the would-be Kavanaugh assassin was arrested, Ruth Sent Us tweeted a notice encouraging its followers to show up at a church associated with Barrett, calling it “a People of Praise stronghold.”
If you’re in the DC metro area, join us. Our protests at Barrett’s home moved the needle to this coverage.
Falls Church is a People of Praise stronghold. She sends her seven kids to a People of Praise school that she sat on the Board of Directors for. She attends church DAILY. pic.twitter.com/keHxXp4TPQ
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022
However, the group denied encouraging violence in a tweet on Wednesday after police arrested Roske. That tweet remained pinned to the top of the group’s feed as of Saturday morning, despite the fact it insinuated Roske likely had neither a gun nor a knife, based on their reading of media coverage. (Whoops.)
We are committed to non-violence.
Fundamentalists will talk non-stop about how our peaceful protests inspired this, rather than the daily mass-murders in America. ?
Oh, what was this “weapon” the “California man” had? If it was a gun or even a knife, police would say so. ? pic.twitter.com/tTDk2OFxVN
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022
As Fox News noted, the group also spent the day using its Twitter account to label Kavanaugh a “white supremacist” and sarcastically offer him their “thoughts & prayers.”
They also tweeted a picture of a billboard on the school grounds of Kavanaugh’s daughters as well as a claim that Rothke was “a good guy with a gun” because the apparently imbalanced would-be assassin turned himself into police.
A special message for Ashley Kavanaugh and your daughters — this billboard was on your school grounds. We feel for you.@LeaderMcConnell and the GOP aren’t worried for your safety. They worry only for the expensive Supreme Court they rigged, and their own power. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/g3n5fgjNZW
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022
The solution is to arm SCOTUS Justices, @LeaderMcConnell. Or bolt closed all their doors except one.
Plus it was just a good guy with a gun — he called the police on himself.
— Ruth Sent Us ? (@RuthSentUs) June 8, 2022
Rothke may be a bumbling man with serious stability problems, but he did enough that he’s been charged with attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice. Ruth Sent Us, meanwhile, is having themselves quite the laugh in Dealey Plaza, and that merriment is laced with anti-Catholic vitriol.
This would have caused outrage on Nov. 22, 1963. It should have caused the same kind of outrage on June 8, 2022, as well.