Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ducked out the back door of a steakhouse in Washington, D.C., when a group of demonstrators gathered outside to protest his vote to jettison Roe v. Wade, Politico and activists reported.
Kavanaugh was dining Wednesday night at Morton’s restaurant in downtown Washington when protesters showed up out front, according to Politico. They called the manager to tell him to kick Kavanaugh out — and later tweeted that the justice soon slipped out the back, which Politico confirmed.
Kavanaugh hasn’t commented on the incident, but Morton’s was furious.
“Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protestors while eating dinner at our Morton’s restaurant,” a representative said in a statement to Politico.
“Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner. There is a time and place for everything. Disturbing the dinner of all of our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency,” the statement added.
A source insisted to Politico that Kavanaugh didn’t see or hear the protesters and scarfed down his entire meal — with dessert — before ducking out the back to avoid the demonstrators.
When pressed Friday by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy about the incident, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We condemn any intimidation of the judges ... we condemn any violence.” As for “peaceful protests,” she added, “people should be allowed to be able to do that ... this is what democracy is.”
Doocy railed about justices’ lack of “privacy.”
A debate about the incident erupted on Twitter over Kavanaugh’s right to dine in peace. Some who where furious about the Roe ruling that reversed decades of abortion rights said that badgering Kavanaugh won’t help women get back their reproductive freedom. But others choked on Morton’s complaint that their customers’ rights shouldn’t be trampled.
Several quipped that there’s nothing specific in the Constitution guaranteeing the right to dine in peace, a reference to the justification the court’s conservative majority used to dump Roe v. Wade. Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri wrote an article revealing that, after extensive study, she discovered the “right to congregate and eat dinner is actually not to be found anywhere in the Constitution.”
Some on Twitter claimed abortion rights advocates were making fake reservations to hit back at Morton’s.