Conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dinner at Morton’s was cut short this week after abortion-rights activists circled the D.C. steakhouse and called for his mid-meal exit, reports Politico.
Tipped off that Kavanaugh was dining at the downtown power spot on Wednesday, July 6, a protest group known as “ShutDownDC” showed up out front and reportedly told the Morton’s manager to throw him out. Right around 9 p.m., the group tweeted that the justice was forced to leave through the back with his security detail.
A Morton’s rep condemned the demonstration, telling Politico that Kavanaugh and all other customers were “unduly harassed by unruly protestors,” while eating on-site that night.
“Politics, regardless of your side or views, should not trample the freedom at play of the right to congregate and eat dinner,” added the Morton’s rep.
The dinnertime drama comes just two weeks after Kavanaugh was in the Supreme Court’s majority bombshell decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion that had been upheld for half a century. Soon after the draft opinion to strike down Roe v. Wade leaked in May, demonstrators started showing up at the homes of conservative justices. An armed man was arrested near Kavanaugh’s residence in June.
Eater reached out to the Landry’s-owned steakhouse chain for further comment on the series of events on July 6.
Accessed inside an office building lobby and up a set of escalators, D.C.’s long-running Morton’s sports a wood-framed dining room and lengthy patio overlooking Connecticut Avenue NW. It’s unclear where Kavanaugh sat — or what he could or couldn’t finish eating — at the time of the interruption. (Politico, citing a person familiar with the situation, said “[Kavanaugh] did not hear or see the protesters and ate a full meal but left before dessert.”)
Meanwhile, the D.C. steakhouse of choice of former President Donald Trump was BLT Prime inside Trump International Hotel (which are now both closed). Trump and his second Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh do share a known condiment love for ketchup, however (Trump, with steaks; and Kavanaugh, with spaghetti).
