Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan urged lawmakers to increase security resources after years of politically motivated threats, including a recent swatting incident at Barrett’s family home.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan appeared before Congress on July 14 to request additional funding for judicial security as members of the nation’s highest court face continuing threats connected to politically divisive rulings.
The justices presented their request to the House Appropriations Committee amid growing concern about the safety of Supreme Court members and their families.
Threats against the court have increased over the past several years, particularly after the leak of a draft opinion indicating that the justices were preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Barrett told lawmakers that the risks associated with her position have affected not only her but also her children, forcing them to confront dangers that she said should not be part of an ordinary childhood.
In her opening statement, Barrett said the security environment had required her children to “think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about.”
“Maybe I lack imagination, but 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 told the committee.
She also recounted a false emergency report made in May that brought police officers to her residence while her teenage son was preparing to leave the house to meet friends.
Barrett said her son encountered police vehicles surrounding the family home after someone falsely reported hearing “gun shots and raised voices” inside.
The incident was an example of swatting, a tactic in which someone makes a fabricated report of a violent emergency to provoke an armed law enforcement response at another person’s home.
Barrett said her personal security team was able to defuse the situation before it escalated.
The justice used the incident to illustrate how threats against public officials can reach beyond court buildings and official proceedings, placing family members at risk inside their own homes.
The request from Barrett and Kagan comes as Supreme Court rulings continue to generate intense political reaction and as individual justices face threats tied to their judicial work.
Their appearance before the appropriations panel focused attention on whether current security funding is sufficient to protect the justices, their households and court facilities from increasingly sophisticated or disruptive threats.
No specific funding figure or congressional decision was included in the information provided.
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