WASHINGTON – In a full-day of demonstrations on Capitol Hill, hundreds of mostly women protesters raised fists and shouted "Lock Him Up" in front of the Supreme Court, unfurled banners inside a Senate office building and even blocked a Senate elevator door to directly confront Sen. Jeff Flake on live TV.

Angry protesters marched and shouted in, around and through the marbled buildings that dot Capitol Hill even as members of the Senate Judiciary were gingerly advancing the controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for a vote next week.

Arrests were plentiful. Some for blocking hallways, others for unfurling banners reading "Withdraw Kavanaugh. No Abusees on the Supreme Court" from the upper floors of the Hart Senate Office Building.

In the most dramatic confrontation, Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila, two women who said they had been sexually abused, blocked an elevator door that Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was trying to close.

"What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court," a visibly distraught Archila told Flake. "This is intolerable."

Gallagher, equally upset, told the senator: "You have power but so many women are powerless."

At noon, more than a hundred protesters – mostly women – gathered in front of the Supreme Court ahead of a Women’s March to hear speeches from fellow activists, sympathetic Democratic lawmakers and even folk singer Joan Baez.

The crowd’s energy rose as they chanted “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Kavanaugh has got to go” and “The people, united, will never be divided!” amid drumming.

"We will not be bullied," Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., told the demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court building where Kavanaugh hopes to sit soon.

At one point, the crowd broke out in a chant of "Lock him up! Lock him up!"

After Flake announced his surprise move to tie an FBI probe to his final vote on the nominee, Amalya Smith, with the National Partnership for Women and Families, who was addressing the crowd, announced that Flake is "manning up," triggering wild cheering. Then she added, "or, womaning up."

Katharine Landfield, who graduated from the Holton-Arms School in 1986 – two years behind Kavanaugh-accuser Christine Blasey Ford – said the process of watching the hearings has been “painful.”

“This whole situation could not be more resonant with any of the women in my class,” she said, remembering the culture that led to the allegations Ford is making. “We all remember this kind of behavior, as clear as if it happened yesterday.”

In the Dirksen Senate Office Building, police hauled off several protesters in plastic cuffs.

Over at the Hart Senate Office building, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, her voice choked with tears, gave a fiery speech to protesters, charging that the Republican-dominated committee's push to confirm Kavanaugh quickly represented a "fundamental disrespect of women."

“This is 11 men deciding that women have no right to be treated with respect, and we say, 'Rise up, women!' " she said.

In the Senate elevator confrontation, the two women implored Flake while standing in the door, blocking it from closing. Throughout the ordeal, Flake largely avoided eye contact with the women, saying he had to get to the Senate meeting.

"Don't look away from me," Gallagher shouted. "Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what happened to me."

The confrontation played out live on CNN as Flake's staffer gently tried to defuse the situation and a reporter tried to coax a response from the senator.

In the hallway of the Dirksen building, meanwhile, kneeling protesters began using whistles to create a cacophonous noise, chanting “November is coming!” and “Shame!”

Darius Gordon, a National field organizer for the Center for Popular Democracy, said Friday's arrests send an important message – that "folks are not just willing to lay down and let things go smoothly."

Rachel Egan, another protester, agreed. “There’s a long history of nonviolent disobedience in this country,” she said. “It generally occurs when people feel that there is no other recourse to shine a light on injustice.”

John J. Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, said it is likely that many Democratic women will use the Kavanaugh nomination as a "rallying point."

"Either implicitly or explicitly, the message will be that we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment,” he said.

This year, a record number of women are running for elected office, many of them women of color.

In her speech, Jayapal, a Democratic congresswoman from Washington state, pointed to the political energy unleashed by the movement, led by women, against Kavanaugh.

“We know that strength emerges in times of crisis,” she said. “So, let it roar forward like a volcano.”

Alexandra De Luca, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List – a group that works to get women who are supportive of abortion rights elected to Congress – said the Kavanaugh nomination is "another reminder why elections matter.”

The outbursts on Capitol Hill came as emotions soared on both sides of the Kavanaugh nomination ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee vote.

More than a dozen clergy gathered at the Senate Hart Office Building to express their opposition to the controversial pick.

Speaking to a small crowd gathered on Capitol Hill, the group expressed support for Christine Blasey Ford, the California psychology professor who alleged to the same committee on Thursday that she had been sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh in high school, when she was 15 and he was 17.

Religious leaders of all faiths spoke to a crowd about sexual violence, truth and morality. One held a sign that read, “I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.”

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“If you are one of those women, we believe you. God loves you and we will stand with you until this injustice is over,” said Amber Neuroth, a pastor from Alexandria, Virginia.

As the vote approached, protesters made their way to the Dirksen Senate Office building, where Judiciary Committee senators were scheduled to meet. Protesters shouted words of support to Democratic senators as they made their way inside and urged Republican senators to change their minds.

“You have a daughter! Do the right thing!” one demonstrator shouted at Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. stopped to speak to the protesters.

"I truly appreciate all of you being here,” he said. “It means a lot and inspires us.”