Constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax Saturday that while those who protested Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh while he dined at a Washington steakhouse had the "right" to do so, they were "wrong" to interfere with his private life.
"The White House made a terrible mistake [encouraging protests at the homes of the court's justices]," Dershowitz said during "America Right Now" Saturday. "They confused somebody's right to do something with whether it was the right thing to do.
"Whether or not people who protested in front of the steakhouse had the right to do it, it was wrong for them to do it."
The conservative justice, who last month signed on to the decision overruling 1973's Roe v. Wade, was forced to leave the venue through a back door between dinner and dessert Wednesday night, Politico reported.
"Honorable Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and all of our other patrons at the restaurant were unduly harassed by unruly protesters while eating dinner at our Morton's restaurant," the restaurant chain 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 our customers was an act of selfishness and void of decency."
Pro-abortion activists have been protesting the decision since a leaked draft of the controversial decision went public in May. They have appeared at justices' homes, including Kavanaugh's.
Additionally, a California man was arrested after he reportedly went to Kavanaugh's private residence with plans of killing the justice.
Dershowitz said it is "central to decency" to be able to distinguish between the ability to protest someone or something and whether it is the right time and place to do it.
"You have a right to do things that are wrong, and these folks did something that's very wrong [by] protesting and not allowing people to have a dinner, not allowing people to be with their family," he said. "[It is] just wrong. Protest in front of the Supreme Court, the place of work, but don't protest the person having a decent dinner."
According to a story in The Washington Post, late-night television host Samantha Bee told her viewers to engage in just this kind of behavior with the justices.
"We have to raise hell — in our cities, in Washington, in every restaurant Justice [Samuel] Alito eats at for the rest of his life," The Post reported she told her audience. "Because if Republicans have made our lives hell, it's time to return the favor."
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