Staff Reports
America woke up this week to a stark reminder that ideological rage has crossed a terrifying line: federal prosecutors have formally asked a judge to impose a prison term of at least 30 years for the person who attempted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022, a defendant who has since pleaded guilty and whose sentencing is scheduled for October 3, 2025.
The facts are chilling and straightforward — the defendant traveled from California to Justice Kavanaugh’s Maryland neighborhood armed with a gun, knives, zip ties and burglary tools, and has admitted she went there intending to kill the justice before turning herself in.
Prosecutors rightly frame this as more than a single act of violence; the filing calls it an attack on the judiciary itself and says the defendant had contemplated targeting other justices, which makes clear this was politically motivated violence aimed at subverting our constitutional order.
Yet instead of sober condemnation from some quarters, we’ve seen the predictable parade of excuses — mental health defenses, identity-political talking points, and defense lawyers asking the court to use new pronouns in filings. The grotesque spectacle of justifying or humanizing an attempted assassin by turning this into a debate about identity should outrage every American who believes in accountability and public safety.
This is not the time for soft responses or moral equivalence: when someone plans to murder a Supreme Court justice, the full force of the law must follow, and our leaders must speak plainly that political violence is unacceptable no matter the grievance. The Department of Justice’s insistence on a heavy sentence is appropriate, and conservatives should demand that courts send a message that our institutions will not be terrorized into submission.
Patriots who love this country and its rule of law must insist on stronger protections for judges, tougher consequences for political violence, and a rejection of the cynical narratives that seek to minimize these crimes. The October 3 sentencing will be a test of whether our justice system treats an attempt to kill a justice as the full-blown assault on democracy that it was; Americans should watch closely and demand justice be done.
