The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-09)

A4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, JUNE 9 , 2022

duties without fear of violence

against them and their families.”

In recent weeks, there have

been many demonstrations out-

side the homes of conservative

justices, including Kavanaugh;

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.;

Samuel A. Alito Jr., who wrote the

draft; Amy Coney Barrett; Clar-

ence Thomas; and Neil M. Gor-

such.

Protesters insist they are exer-

cising their First Amendment

rights, emphasize that their dem-

onstrations are peaceful and re-

ject any notion that they are

trying to influence the justices.

There have been no arrests

d uring these demonstrations,

spokespeople for police in Mont-

gomery and Fairfax counties said.

Abortion rights advocates still

planned to demonstrate outside

the homes of Kavanaugh and

Roberts on Wednesday night — as

they have every Wednesday for

several weeks — despite the inci-

dent Wednesday morning.

Lacie Wooten-Holway, a neigh-

bor of the Kavanaughs who has

been organizing demonstrations

outside their home for months,

said that although this incident

was “scary,” it will not deter activ-

ists from making their voices

heard.

Wooten-Holway, a 39-year-old

mother, has faced backlash for

demonstrating, including threats

to her family and workplace and

the presence of antiabortion ac-

tivists outside her home on Moth-

er’s Day.

These safety concerns have led

Wooten-Holway, who has had an

abortion and is a sexual assault

survivor, to hire private security

and to resign from her job. She

plans to soon move her family out

of their home for an extended

period of time. But on Wednesday

night, Wooten-Holway said she

intended to again join the demon-

strators.

“We are still planning on being

peacefully downright impolite to-

night,” Wooten-Holway said. “We

will be out there tonight armed

with only our voices, snacks, rain-

coats and the First Amendment,

and a firm belief that we are doing

the next right thing.”

Robert Barnes, Isaac Stanley-Becker,

Razzan Nakhlawi, Erin Cox, Carol D.

Leonnig, Rachel Weiner and Ann E.

Marimow contributed to this report.

justices led him to offer addition-

al resources last month for pro-

tecting members of the high

court, and he said he also met

Tuesday with federal judges to

discuss security concerns.

“Threats of violence and actual

violence against the justices of

course strike at the heart of our

democracy,” Garland told report-

ers. “And we will do everything we

can to prevent them and to hold

people who do them account-

able.”

Federal investigators allege

that Roske traveled to Montgom-

ery County from California with a

mission: He wanted to kill a spe-

cific Supreme Court justice, one

he thought would join opinions

that would ease restrictions on

guns, according to the affidavit.

He found his target’s address,

according to the affidavit, and

arrived in front of the justice’s

home about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Two U.S. deputy marshals spot-

ted Roske exiting a cab in front of

the home, where he looked at

them before turning to walk

down the street, according to the

court documents detailing

Roske’s alleged actions and moti-

vations.

He wore black clothing and

carried a suitcase and backpack

with weapons and other supplies,

including a Glock 17 with two

magazines and ammunition, a

tactical knife, pepper spray, a

hammer, a screwdriver, a crow-

bar, zip ties and duct tape, along

with other gear, according to

court documents.

Not long after, according to

court documents, the Montgom-

ery County Emergency Commu-

nications Center received a call

from Roske saying that he had

suicidal thoughts and came to kill

a specific Supreme Court justice.

He apparently told the call

taker that although he had a

firearm, it was unloaded and

locked in his suitcase. The call

taker then relayed that informa-

tion to law enforcement, accord-

The affidavit does not identify
which justice Roske was threat-
ening, but Supreme Court
spokeswoman Patricia McCabe
said in a statement that a man
was arrested near Kavanaugh’s
residence after making “threats
against Justice Kavanaugh.” Ef-
forts to reach Roske’s family were
unsuccessful.
Roske appeared in court
Wednesday afternoon before U.S.
Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Sul-
livan and was represented by
federal public defender Andrew
Szekely. When asked if he under-
stood the proceedings, Roske
said: “I think I have a reasonable
enough understanding, but I
wouldn’t say I’m thinking clearly.”
When the judge inquired fur-
ther, Roske said only that he was
on medication and that he had
taken that medication on Wednes-
day. He later clarified that he had
“a clear enough understanding” to
proceed. He consented in court to
being detained before his trial and
temporarily waived his right to a
bond hearing.
Roske’s public defender de-
clined to comment outside the
hearing.
The leaked draft opinion to
overturn the long-standing con-
stitutional right to abortion came
more than a month before the
court is set to deliver its ruling.
The publication of the draft laid
bare divisions across the country
regarding abortion access, the
manner in which people protest,
and views on the court’s reputa-
tion as an independent institu-
tion.
The high court decision is ex-
pected this month or in early July.
Asked about the incident near
Kavanaugh’s home on Wednes-
day, Attorney General Merrick
Garland condemned any acts or
threats of violence against Su-
preme Court justices.
He noted that the concern over
increased security risks to the

ARREST FROM A

Gun among items found

with Calif. man arrested

near Kavanaugh’s home

day, Minority Leader Mitch Mc-

Connell (R-Ky.) urged the House

to pass separate legislation to

enhance security for Supreme

Court justices and their families.

The bill passed the Senate just

days after the publication of the

leaked draft opinion to overturn

Roe. McConnell said the threat at

Kavanaugh’s home early Wednes-

day “is exactly the kind of event

that many feared that terrible

breach of the court’s rules and

norms could fuel.”

House Majority Whip Steny H.

Hoyer (D-Md.) said he had “very

positive” discussions about the

bill with the Senate and is “hope-

ful that we can get agreement

soon.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan

(R) said in a statement that he

was briefed on the incident and

that it underscored why he

pushed for extra security at the

justices’ homes.

“I call on leaders in both par-

ties in Washington to strongly

condemn these actions in no un-

certain terms,” Hogan said in the

statement. “It is vital to our con-

stitutional system that the jus-

tices be able to carry out their

surrounds the high court, which

remains closed to the public be-

cause of the coronavirus pandem-

ic. Law enforcement also has

stepped up its presence outside

many of the justices’ homes.

Those who have traveled since

the draft opinion was leaked are

usually accompanied by bigger

security details.

Threats to federal judges have

risen dramatically in recent

years. Five federal judges have

been slain in the past 45 years,

according to the Administrative

Office of the U.S. Courts. Two

years ago, the 20-year-old son of a

federal judge in New Jersey was

shot and killed at the front door of

the family’s home. The man who

fatally shot Judge Esther Salas’s

son and wounded her husband

had tracked down Salas’s address,

church and other personal infor-

mation online. In response, the

Senate Judiciary Committee ap-

proved legislation in December

that would scrub personal infor-

mation about judges from the

internet and enhance their home

security systems. A similar bill is

pending in the House.

On the Senate floor Wednes-

ing to two individuals familiar

with the investigation who spoke

on the condition of anonymity to

speak freely. He also said that he

would be moving 20 yards away

from the suitcase with empty

pockets and no weapons, the indi-

viduals said.

Kavanaugh and his family

were home at the time, according

to another person familiar with

the matter.

When Montgomery police

were dispatched, Roske was still

on the phone with 911, according

to an affidavit. He was taken into

custody without incident.

A spokeswoman for the FBI

office in Maryland said the office

is “aware” of the arrest and “work-

ing with our law enforcement

partners,” declining to comment

further. Separately, a spokeswom-

an for the U.S. Marshals Service

confirmed that deputies with the

agency “ along with the Montgom-

ery County police apprehended

an individual today near the resi-

dence of Justice Brett Ka-

vanaugh.” The spokeswoman de-

clined to comment further.

There are signs of enhanced

security for the justices. A fence

JACQUELYN MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Law enforcement officials work near the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in Chevy

Chase, Md., after the arrest of a man who showed up there and allegedly wanted to kill a justice.

BY JOEL ACHENBACH

NASA’s $10 billion James Webb
Space Telescope has had a rough
encounter with an extraterrestri-
al hazard: It got dinged by a
micrometeoroid.
The micrometeoroid strike
doesn’t appear to have fuzzed the
Webb’s vision significantly, or
rendered it incapable of perform-
ing revolutionary observations of
the universe, including capturing
light emitted more than 13 billion
years ago, near the dawn of time.
The telescope, launched from
French Guiana on Christmas, is
still being calibrated and by all
accounts has been performing
splendidly.
But the direct hit on a mirror
caught NASA by surprise and is
still being analyzed. Details of the
micrometeoroid strike were re-
vealed by NASA in a blog post
dedicated to the Webb.
“Between May 23 and 25,
NASA’s James Webb Space Tele-
scope sustained an impact to one
of its primary mirror segments,”
the NASA Webb blog stated. “Af-
ter initial assessments, the team
found the telescope is still per-
forming at a level that exceeds all
mission requirements despite a
marginally detectable effect in
the data.”
The 18 segments of the mirror
can be individually modified in
response to meteoroid impacts
such as this one, NASA said.
“By adjusting the position of
the affected segment, engineers
can cancel out a portion of the
distortion ... although not all of
the degradation can be cancelled
out this way,” the NASA blog said.
“Engineers have already per-
formed a first such adjustment
for the recently affected segment
... and additional planned mirror
adjustments will continue to fine-
tune this correction.”
The exact size of micrometeor-
oid is not known, but it may have
been no bigger than a grain of
sand, said Heidi Hammel, a plan-
etary astronomer who has long
been involved with the telescope.
Even something that small can
cause damage because of the
tremendous speed at which the
telescope orbits the sun and peri-
odically slams into a random
particle.
This was a known hazard be-

cause although it’s lonely out in

space, it’s not as empty as it looks.

“We knew there would be tiny

impacts on it. We were just sur-

prised that one hit so soon,”

Hammel said, adding such events

were anticipated every five years

or so.

Paul Geithner, a deputy project

manager for the telescope at

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight

Center in Greenbelt, Md., said the

team is using this incident to

learn more about micrometeor-

oids.

“We on Webb, being engineers

and scientists, are curious first

and foremost,” he said. “ ... We

always expected some hits, and

when we see one — especially this

recent one that is bigger than the

few others we’ve received — it

grabs our attention, and we want

to understand it, recheck our

assumptions and understanding

and predictions, and make better

sense of it.”

This extraordinarily complex

observatory, heralded as the long-

awaited successor to the still-

functional Hubble Space Tele-

scope, is orbiting the sun in a

position that keeps it roughly 1

million miles from Earth. It is too

far away for astronauts to visit,

and it’s not designed to be fixed or

to have instruments swapped

out.

The Webb has been going

through a “commissioning”

phase for months as its instru-

ments are calibrated and the 18

gold-plated, hexagonal mirrors

are brought into alignment to

function as a single massive mir-

ror about 21 feet in diameter.

Until now, NASA has reported

nothing but success.

“Astronomers are giddy with

how well things are going (but

also nervous not to jinx it, yes we

can be superstitious too) and

anxious to start doing science!”

astrophysicist Michael Turner of

the University of Chicago said in

an email.

The telescope, folded upon it-

self at launch last year, flowered

over the course of many days as

its sprawling sun shield opened

up and the mirrors deployed. The

telescope traveled for 29 days to

reach its outpost, an orbital posi-

tion known as L2 where other

telescopes have operated safely

and offered scientists data on the

frequency of micrometeoroids.

“While the telescope was being

built, engineers used a mixture of

simulations and actual test im-

pacts on mirror samples to get a

clearer idea of how to fortify the

observatory for operation in or-

bit. This most recent impact was

larger than was modeled, and

beyond what the team could have

tested on the ground,” the NASA

Webb blog stated.

The Webb is different from

most telescopes: It’s wide open,

with the mirrors exposed rather

than tucked into a tube. The

telescope is designed to observe

the universe at infrared wave-

lengths that are outside the de-

tection range of the Hubble.

This requires mirrors and in-

struments that are extremely

cold, which is why the mirrors

face away from the Earth and sun

at all times. NASA has announced

that the “first light” images will

be released July 12, but it has not

said what those will show.

Already, though, it has pro-

duced an image of a star, used for

focusing the mirrors. In the back-

ground of that image are numer-

ous galaxies whose light was

emitted billions of years ago, and

that has thrilled astronomers

who expect that the Webb will see

deeper into space (and into the

past) than the Hubble, launched

in 1990.

The Webb has multiple goals,

including studying the earliest

light in the universe, emitted a

few hundred million years after

the big bang. It will also look at

the evolution of galaxies and

study objects in our own solar

system, including small, icy bod-

ies that orbit the sun far beyond

the orbit of Neptune.

Webb Telescope h it by micrometeoroid, surprising NASA

NASA/STSCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

This image from the James Webb Space Telescope, made available by NASA, shows a star used to align the telescope’s mirrors, with galaxies and stars in the background.

Direct strike on mirror

doesn’t appear to have

caused major damage