Justice Amy Coney Barrett told the House Appropriations Committee the uptick in threats waged against her and fellow Supreme Court justices have taken a toll on her children.
\n\u201cThey have required my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about,\u201d Barrett testified Tuesday.
\nBarrett shared how her security detail gave her a bulletproof vest to wear, and one day when she brought it into her bedroom, her 12-year-old son asked what it was.
\n\u201cAnd I didn\u2019t know how to respond because maybe I lack imagination, but I didn\u2019t 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,\u201d Barrett told the committee.
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\nBarrett and Justice Elena Kagan\u2019s testimony before Congress came as the Supreme Court seeks a 10% budget increase for fiscal year 2027, with roughly $16.6 million of the $20.7 million increase dedicated to expanding security for the justices.<\/p>\n
Barrett, who was the target of a swatting incident in May, recounted how her and her family\u2019s lives drastically changed following the leaked Dobbs decision in 2022, which ruled that abortion was not a constitutional right, causing threats on her life to intensify.
\nIn that incident, someone falsely reported gunshots at her home, Barrett testified, saying her teenage son and his friends were the first to discover the street filled with police.
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\n\u201cI was very, very grateful that I had Supreme Court police outside my home because they were able to stop and meet with and explain to the county police that it had been a false alarm, and so the police did not actually attempt to enter our home,\u201d Barrett said.
\nShe also shared that her and other justices are receiving anonymous packages being sent in the name of Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, who was killed in 2020.
\nThe gunman was an attorney posing as a delivery driver. Judge Salas was his target. Salas\u2019 husband was seriously injured as well.<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cI think the message on these deliveries being sent in his name is clear,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cAs Justice Kagan said, federal judges across the country, throughout the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, continue to do their jobs without fear or favor, but the threat level is really high.\u201d
\nThe testimony underscored the urgency behind the Supreme Court\u2019s push for more security funding during its first appearance before Congress since 2019.
\nIn total, the Supreme Court is requesting roughly $89 million to cover personal security costs, which Kagan said is necessary given that the justices have experienced a 35% increase in threats just in 2026, compared to a 25% increase in threats the year prior. Kagan noted how recent growth in the budget can be entirely attributed to security expenses.
\n\u201cFor some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,\u201d Kagan testified.<\/p>\n
She recalled that when she arrived at the Supreme Court in 2010, justices did not receive around-the-clock personal protection. Instead, the court\u2019s police primarily guarded the building, and she only had security accompanying her during work-related public events.
\nBut Kagan said the heightened focus on justices\u2019 security began after Justice Antonin Scalia\u2019s death in 2016. Scalia died while on a hunting trip in Texas, where he was hours away from security personnel after declining a private security detail for the trip.
\nKagan recalled that Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., went to Chief Justice John Roberts to push them to step up security.
\n\u201cThis was how the chief described it to us \u2014 they said, kind of like, \u2018We think you\u2019re crazy, you know, that you have less security than the director of the Office of Personnel Management does. And we think that you have to do better.\u2019
\n\u201cThen, of course, the Dobbs leak happened, and that really increased the urgency of the entire thing,\u201d Kagan said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been working on this now for about a decade and actually, I think, are grateful to Congress for coming to us and saying, \u2018You have to up your game in this area.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"