‘The threat level is really high’: Supreme Court justices testify to Congress on budget request for increased security funds

Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testified to Congress Tuesday about the court’s request for millions in increased funding amid rising threats to the judiciary – threats so severe Barrett said she has been forced to explain a bulletproof vest to her children.

It marks the first time in seven years a justice has testified on Capitol Hill, as the pair sat before a House Appropriations subcommittee for a hearing focused on the budget rather than questions about the court’s legal decisions. The court is requesting nearly $230 million, an increase of around $20.5 million from the previous fiscal year.

Kagan told lawmakers that a majority of the funding would be for security personnel. “Over the last five fiscal years, the Supreme Court’s funding needs have grown on average 15% per year,” she said, noting that besides inflation, growth in the court’s budget has been “almost entirely for security expenses.”

Lawmakers from both parties agreed threats have increased in recent years, including the attempted assassination of Brett Kavanaugh in 2022. “New technologies have become accessible for bad actors. The threat environment facing our federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, has evolved substantially,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio.

Citing Chief Justice John Roberts’ own concerns, Joyce noted that threats towards federal judges had more than tripled in the past decade and U.S. Marshals have investigated more than 1,000 serious threats in the past five years.

At least 370 threats have been made to judges since January alone, noted Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, and 564 threats were made last year. “At this rate, we are looking at a 31% year-over-year increase in threats against federal judges,” she said. “That is simply and deeply an alarming rise.” 

Barrett testified about what it is like to be on the receiving end of those statistics: “They have required me, my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about,” she said, describing how her security detail had to send her home with a bulletproof vest. “I carried it into my house, put it into my bedroom, dropped it down on a table, turned around, and my 12-year-old son was standing in the doorway of my bedroom, and he wanted to know what it was and why I had it, and I didn’t know how to respond.”

“I didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one,” she said. 

Barrett described a recent swatting incident at her home and said she and other justices have received threatening anonymous mail sent in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of a federal judge who was murdered when a gunman came to his house to target his mother. “So I think the message on these deliveries being sent in his name is clear,” Barrett said. 

“Federal judges across the country, throughout the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, continue to do their jobs without fear or favor,” Barrett said. “But the threat level is really high.”