In his first appearance before the 118th Congress, Garland was grilled by Republican senators about the Department of Justice’s failure to enforce a federal law that prohibits protests outside the homes of judges and jurors, who might be intimidated into changing their thinking on pending cases in response to such displays. Since the draft opinion in the Dobbs case, which ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, was released, protests outside the justices’ suburban homes in Virginia and Maryland have intensified."You just said yes, it’s a crime to protest at the home of a judge. Same goes for jurors, by the way, with the intent of influencing a case. But in the wake of the leak of the Dobbs decision, when rioters descended on the homes of six Supreme Court justices, night after night after night, you did nothing," Cruz said to Garland. "The Department [of Justice] did nothing."