DOJ sued for refusing to explain why it ignored protests at Supreme Court justices’ homes

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The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project sued the Department of Justice on Thursday for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for documents explaining why it ignored protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices in the wake of this year's historic abortion ruling.

The group's lawsuit against the Justice Department said its request for records from various offices, including the Office of the Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals Service, were all denied. The group was seeking records that explained why the DOJ failed to enforce a federal law that protects Supreme Court justices from certain demonstrations at their private residences.

The initial request was ignored by the Biden administration, in violation of the FOIA statute, the group claimed in its lawsuit. The Justice Department repeatedly missed deadlines on subsequent requests, and even after granting one request with expedited processing, the Oversight Project has yet to receive a response from the DOJ.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill. (Tasos Katopodis/Pool via AP)

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"The American people deserve to know why Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland not only refused to publicly and unequivocally condemn this behavior, but also why they continue not to prosecute or hold accountable those who facially broke the law in an attempt to influence the proceedings of the Supreme Court," Roman Jankowski, senior investigative counsel for the Oversight Project, said in a statement.

"We think there are answers to those questions in the documents we have requested, and we have a right by law to those documents," he continued.

Abortion-rights activists with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights chant after marching to the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in Falls Church, Virginia, on June 18, 2022. (Getty Images )

The Oversight Project was launched in January with the goal of "exposing" the Biden administration's leftist policies. The group says one of these policies is the DOJ's failure to uphold federal law that prohibits the kind of protests that took place after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

The group said Section 1507 of the federal criminal code bans protests that are designed to influence justices' decisions. It also noted that people have been prosecuted under that law as recently as several years ago, when the statute was used against protesters who disrupted Supreme Court oral arguments.

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Abortion-rights protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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A spokesperson for DOJ declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

Fox News Digital's Houston Keene contributed to this report.