Ruth Sent Us is a far-left group dedicated to launching protests against U.S. Supreme Court Justices who may vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion. The group is named as a reference to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, despite its Facebook group stating, “We acknowledge that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was racist and was also an iconic feminist!” ¹ Ruth Sent Us intends to “defeat fascism” through protests that declare: “trust women,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Love is Love,” and “No Human is Illegal.” ²

Ruth Sent Us advocates for the arrest and prosecution of “divisive, corrupt and illegitimate Republicans,” including “Trump, his criminal family, politicians and Supreme Court justices.” ³

Ruth Sent Us lists no leaders or funders on its website. However, the group is connected to Sam Spiegel and Vara Ramakrishnan, two Democratic activists. The funding source for Ruth Sent Us, which pays for its website, protest organization, and stipends for protestors, is unknown, though the group is fundraising through Open Collective. ⁴

Protests at Justices’ Homes

From May 8 through 15, 2022, Ruth Sent Us organized protests at the homes of the six U.S. Supreme Court Justices who were reportedly considering voting to overturn Roe v. Wade: John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito. Ruth Sent Us published the locations of the homes of all six individuals; three live in Virginia and three in Maryland. ⁵

Right-leaning website The Federalist alleged that Ruth Sent Us offered stipends to protesters and artists. ⁶ The protests included women dressed up as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian novel about a future society in which women are systematically raped. Protestors also walked into a mass at a Catholic church with one protestor shouting, “For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has been an institution for the enslavement of women.” ⁷

Ruth Sent Us’s website also offers protest options for volunteers, including “strike paid work,” “strike school,” “strike spending,” “hunger strike,” and “join a direct action at local Whole Foods.” ⁸

Legality

Some commentators have claimed that Ruth Sent Us’s protests at the homes of SCOTUS justices were unlawful due to a Virginia law which prohibits protests at homes and a federal law which prohibits obstruction of justice. Representatives of Ruth Sent Us claimed the laws are unconstitutional and rarely enforced. ⁹

TikTok Ban

On May 14, 2022, Ruth Sent Us announced that its TikTok account, which had 20,000 followers, was permanently banned for “multiple violations of our community guideline.” ¹⁰

On May 16, 2022, TikTok reversed the ban of Ruth Sent Us’s account, allegedly due to mass appeals according to the group’s Twitter account. ¹¹

Leadership

Fox News reported that Ruth Sent Us’s website was registered by Sam Spiegel, treasurer of the Unseat PAC. In 2018, Spiegel supported Rep. Maxine Waters’s (D-CA) call to publicly harass supporters of President Donald Trump. Spiegel wrote on Twitter: “Lies and cruelty are not political opinions. If you support Trump today, you’re a Nazi, and should be run out of polite society.” ¹²

Unseat has raised and spent only a few hundred dollars. ¹³ Spiegel describes the PAC as “bi-partisan” and intended to “unseat unethical politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.” ¹⁴

Vara Ramakrishnan is also a leader at Unseat and is reportedly connected to Ruth Sent Us. Ramakrishnan is a national organizer for Strike for Choice, ¹⁵ which is linked by Ruth Sent Us’s website. Ramakrishnan is also connected to “Vigil for Democracy,” an Arizona-based company which sponsored the map of the SCOTUS Justices’ homes on Ruth Sent Us’s website. ¹⁶ Vigil for Democracy shares a mailing address with Unseat. ¹⁷

1. “About.” Facebook. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/rbgsentus/about/?ref=page_internal.
2. “About this Community.” Facebook. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ruthsent.
3. “About this Community.” Facebook. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ruthsent.
4. Greenfield, Daniel. “Who’s Paying Protesters to Harass Justices and Churches?” FrontpageMag, May 11, 2022. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/05/whos-paying-protesters-harass-justices-and-daniel-greenfield/.
5. “Ruth Sent Us.” Ruth Sent Us. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.ruthsent.us/.
6. Justice, Tristan. “Meet the Shady Left-Wing Group Targeting SCOTUS Justices and their Families.” The Federalist. May 5, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/05/meet-the-shady-left-wing-group-targeting-scotus-justices-and-their-families/.
7. Phippen, Thomas. “Pro-choice activist group Ruth Sent Us says TikTok account was ‘permanently banned.’” Fox News. May 14, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pro-choice-activist-group-ruth-sent-us-tiktok-account-permanently-banned.
8. “On May 8-15, while our Supreme Court considers reversing Roe v Wade by Summer 2022..” Ruth Sent Us. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://strikeforchoice.org/commit-here.
9. Swoyer, Alex. “Pro-choice Ruth Sent Us plans more protests at justices’ homes despite laws against it.” Washington Times. May 19, 2022. Accessed May 21, 2022. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/19/pro-abortion-ruth-sent-us-plans-more-protests-just/.
10. Phippen, Thomas. “Pro-choice activist group Ruth Sent Us says TikTok account was ‘permanently banned.’” Fox News. May 14, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pro-choice-activist-group-ruth-sent-us-tiktok-account-permanently-banned.
11. Jones, Kevin J. “TikTok lifts ban on Ruth Sent Us. Here’s what we know about this anti-Catholic group.” Catholic News Agency. May 18, 2022. Accessed May 19, 2022. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251288/tiktok-lifts-ban-on-ruth-sent-us.
12. Chasmar, Jessica; Cawthorne, Cameron. “Pro-abortion activist targeting SOCTUS justices supported Maxine Waters’ call to harass Trump officials.” Fox News. May 9, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pro-abortion-activist-targeting-scotus-justices-supported-maxine-waters-call-to-harass-trump-officials.
13. ^[1] “PAC Profile: Unseat.” Open Secrets. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/unseat/C00640185/summary/2022.
14. “Sam Spiegel.” Medium. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://medium.com/@UNSEATpac.
15. Morgan, Zoe. “Protestors rally in Palo Alto to protect abortion rights as Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade.” Mountain View Voice. December 2, 2021. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://mv-voice.com/news/2021/12/02/protesters-rally-in-palo-alto-to-protect-abortion-rights-as-supreme-court-considers-overturning-roe-v-wade.
16. Justice, Tristan. “Meet the Shady Left-Wing Group Targeting SCOTUS Justices and their Families.” The Federalist. May 5, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/05/meet-the-shady-left-wing-group-targeting-scotus-justices-and-their-families/.
17. Showalter, Monica. “The slimy hand of Soros emerges in abortion protest outrages.” American Thinker. May 11, 2022. Accessed May 18, 2022. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/the_slimy_hand_of_soros_emerges_in_abortion_protest_outrages.html.