Washington
Feds indict California man found with gun near Justice Kavanaugh’s home
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a California man who was found with a gun, knife and pepper spray near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after telling police he was planning to kill the justice, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, Calif., was charged in a single-count indictment with attempting to murder a Justice of the United States.
Prosecutors say Roske traveled from California to the justice’s home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with the intent of killing Kavanaugh. Roske pulled up near the home in a taxi shortly after 1 a.m. on June 8 carrying a suitcase with a gun and ammunition, a tactical chest rig with pepper spray and a knife, and a flashlight, a laser, a thermal monocular and other burglary tools, according to court papers.
Federal officials have said Roske said he purchased the gun to kill Kavanaugh and also planned to kill himself. He was arrested by police in Montgomery County, Maryland, after he called 911 and told a police dispatcher he was near Kavanaugh’s home and wanted to take his own life.
Roske told police he was upset by a leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is about to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case. He also said he was upset over the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and believed Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun control laws, according to prosecutors.
When he got out of the taxi, Roske was spotted by two U.S. Marshals who are part of round-the-clock security provided to the justices following the leak of the draft opinion last month. But Roske was only apprehended after he called 911 and said he was having suicidal thoughts and planned to kill Kavanaugh, having found the justice’s address online. Roske was still on the phone when Montgomery County police arrived on the scene.
Andrew Szekely, a federal public defender who is representing Roske, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the indictment. He previously declined to comment on the case after Roske’s first court appearance, the day of his arrest.
The indictment comes one day after the House gave final approval to legislation that would allow around-the-clock security protection for families of Supreme Court justices.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously last month, but it languished in the House as Democrats sought to broaden the measure to include protection for families of court employees. Republicans ramped up pressure to pass the bill after Roske’s arrest at Kavanaugh’s house.
Washington
Justices dismiss Trump-era immigration case, in a Biden win
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it was wrong to wade into a dispute involving a Trump-era immigration rule that the Biden administration has abandoned, so the justices dismissed the case.
The court had said it would answer the question of whether Republican-led states, headed by Arizona, could pick up the legal defense of the Trump-era “public charge” rule that denied green cards to immigrants who use food stamps or other public benefits.
The high court heard arguments in the case in February and appeared on track to decide it. But in an unsigned, one-sentence opinion Wednesday, the court said it was dismissing the case. That leaves in place a lower court ruling in favor of the Biden administration that the states could not intervene.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote separately to say he agreed with the decision to toss the case. Roberts said that “bound up” in the case are “a great many issues beyond” the question that the court had agreed to decide. “It has become clear that this mare’s nest could stand in the way” of deciding the case “or at the very least, complicate our resolution of that question,” he wrote.
Roberts said the court’s action should not be taken as “reflective of ... the appropriate resolution of other litigation, pending or future, related to the 2019 Public Charge Rule, its repeal, or its replacement by a new rule.”
Roberts was joined by three other justices in the court’s conservative majority: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch was appointed to the court by Trump. The former president’s two other nominees, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, said nothing.
At the center of the case was a federal law says that green card applicants cannot be burdens to the country or “public charges.” The Trump administration significantly expanded the definition, saying the use of public benefits including food stamps or Medicaid could be disqualifying. That led to court challenges, but the Supreme Court allowed the policy to take effect while those continued.
The Biden administration rescinded the rule and has since announced new guidelines. The administration had said that in practice, the government denied green cards to only three people under Trump’s rule and that their applications were later reopened and approved. Immigration groups have said the bigger impact of the rule was scaring immigrants, causing them to drop benefits or not enroll in them because of fears doing so could affect their applications to become legal permanent residents.
In addition to Arizona, the states involved in the case were Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
In a statement, Brittni Thomason, a spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office said, “Our coalition of states will evaluate how best to continue this important fight.”
The case is State of Arizona v. City and County of San Francisco, California, 20-1775.
Ohio
High court weighs delay in charging man in woman’s attack
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A man arrested 26 years after an attack on a woman left for dead says the state took too long to charge him and his conviction should be thrown out in a case that’s before the Ohio Supreme Court Thursday.
Ralph Bortree was arrested in 2019 and charged with attempted aggravated murder in the 1993 killing of a 19-year-old woman, who was abducted, raped and left for dead.
Authorities arrested Bortree using genetic technology that traced DNA found at the scene.
The statute of limitations for rape and kidnapping expired after six years. But prosecutors said Ohio law still allowed Bortree to be charged with attempted aggravated murder. Bortree was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Attorneys for Bortree argued state law doesn’t define a limit for attempted aggravated murder and therefore the statute of limitations on that charge had also expired.
