The Supreme Court issued an urgent call for Congressional funding to bolster security around justices, warning that threats against the bench are accelerating at an alarming rate. Justice Elena Kagan told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that police expect a 38 percent surge in threats this year, building on a 25 percent jump the previous year.
The numbers reflect a broader climate of political rage. Threats against Congress itself climbed 50 percent this year, according to Capitol Police testimony Kagan referenced during the hearing. As the court has become a flashpoint for the nation's fiercest cultural and political battles, losing sides have increasingly turned to menace and intimidation.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett shared a stark personal detail that illustrated the real human cost. After the Dobbs decision leaked last year, triggering a plot by a California man to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, her security team sent her home with body armor. Her 12-year-old son soon asked her why she needed it. "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," Barrett said.
Kagan acknowledged that some justices have faced threats that came dangerously close to materializing. Yet she emphasized that the court remains committed to its mission, pledging to "adjudicate cases without fear or favor" and decide matters according to law regardless of the personal cost.
The court is requesting $18.9 million in additional funding to shore up defenses. The bulk of that money, $14.6 million, would pay for six new protective agents assigned to each justice plus 25 additional security officers for the building itself. The funds would also support new physical security infrastructure, expanded residential protection, and cybersecurity specialists to counter increasingly sophisticated online attacks.
Kagan and Barrett were set to testify again later Tuesday afternoon before the Senate Appropriations Committee's Financial Services and General Government subcommittee to make the same case to senators.
Author James Rodriguez: "When justices need bulletproof vests and threats climb 40 percent a year, the court has a real security crisis on its hands, not a budget wish list."
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