Supreme Court justices tell Congress more must be spent on their security amid safety risk
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- In a rare appearance before Congress, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan warn that escalating threats and harassment are invading their homes, families and daily routines, forcing extraordinary protective measures.
- The Supreme Court is seeking a roughly 10% budget increase to expand security, including $14.6 million for added personal protection, six more agents per justice and a new residential security post.
- Judicial threats nationwide have surged, including a bomb scare targeting Barrett’s family and a thwarted assassination attempt on Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh after the leaked Roe draft, drawing public alarm from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers Tuesday that a sharp increase in threats targeting her and other justices is increasingly encroaching on their personal and family lives.
During a rare appearance by justices before Congress, Barrett said she had to wear a bulletproof vest home a few years ago, something she struggled to explain to her 12-year-old son.
“I didn’t expect that performing this service would put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was, why I had to wear one,” she said.
She and Justice Elena Kagan testified before a House appropriations panel in support of a request to increase security funding for members of the nation’s highest court.
Judges around the country have seen a rise in threats of violence and intimidation. Barrett’s home was also targeted by a swatting call to police in May.
The hearing comes two weeks after the conservative-majority court finished handing down a series of major opinions, including a decision that increased President Trump’s power over federal regulatory agencies and another that rejected his wide-ranging tariffs, sparking harsh personal criticism.
It’s the first time justices have testified before Congress since 2019, and the two justices are facing wide-ranging questions about the court’s work.
Security is central to the Supreme Court’s budget request
The Supreme Court requested a total of $228 million for next fiscal year, a roughly 10% increase over the year before. About $18 million of that is for maintaining the building and grounds.
Much of the requested increase, $14.6 million, would go to expanding personal protection for justices, with six more agents for each.
An additional $2 million would fund an off-site residential security post aimed at making emergency responses faster, as well as increasing the number of Supreme Court police officers.
The U.S. Marshals Service, responsible for protecting judges, reported 564 threats in the government fiscal year that ended in September, an increase from the year before.
That total includes threats to the hundreds of federal judges around the country, though the nine-member Supreme Court has not been immune.
In May, Barrett’s security detail worked with police to quickly deal with the swatting incident, a fake 911 call designed to provoke a police response. Last year, her sister was the victim of a bomb threat in Charleston, S.C., police said. No bomb was found.
In 2022, shortly after the leak of a draft opinion overturning the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, a would-be assassin was arrested near the home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh with weapons and zip ties. Threats to the Supreme Court increased after that leak and have continued to grow, Kagan said.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has condemned the threats to all U.S. judges, saying during a speech in March that criticism of judicial opinions is understandable, but personally directed hostility is “dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”
Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.
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