Kagan and Barrett detail swatting, bulletproof vest in plea for Congress to boost court security budget

Rare Capitol Hill appearance

Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday morning, with a Senate hearing set for the afternoon. The session opened with Kagan remembering Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, who died on Saturday and had cast one of the few Republican votes to confirm her in 2010. "I didn't get many Republican votes when I was confirmed to the Supreme Court," she said, before recounting an exchange during her confirmation that she said sealed the outcome.

Threats rising

Kagan told lawmakers that threats against the justices rose 25 percent last year and that the Supreme Court Police expect a 38 percent increase this year. "For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize," she said. The U.S. Marshals Service recorded 370 threats against federal judges by July 1 this fiscal year, a 31 percent rise, which ranking member Rosa DeLauro called "deeply alarming." Kagan noted that cybersecurity attacks have grown "by magnitudes," with the rapid advance of AI making such intrusions more possible.

Personal toll on families

Barrett disclosed publicly for the first time that she was the victim of a swatting incident two months ago in Fairfax County, Virginia. A false report of gunshots and raised voices brought police cars to her home; her teenage son opened the door to find the street full of officers. The 24-hour Supreme Court police detail at her residence helped resolve the situation quickly. She also returned to a story from 2022, when the leak of the Dobbs draft decision prompted a California man to plot the killing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Barrett's security detail sent her home with a bulletproof vest, which her 12-year-old son discovered.

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.

In 2022 an armed man was arrested near Kavanaugh's home. Last year Barrett's sister was the target of a bomb threat in Charleston, South Carolina, where no bomb was found.

A $228 million security request

The court's total budget request for the coming fiscal year is $228 million, a 53 percent increase from the previous year. Of that, $14.6 million would fund six additional protection agents per justice, plus 25 security officers at the court and support staff. An extra $2 million would create an off-site residential security command post to speed emergency responses. Barrett said justices are currently assigned between four and eight security personnel, a number they hope to increase over time.

Ethics code divide re-emerges

The hearing also revisited the court's ethics framework. DeLauro, the top Democrat on the committee, called the voluntary ethics code adopted in 2023 "woefully insufficient" and demanded a binding, enforceable system with greater financial transparency, citing Justice Clarence Thomas's undisclosed luxury travel from a billionaire donor. Kagan reiterated her earlier proposal for a committee of respected federal judges to enforce the code, while Barrett voiced concern about the complexities of creating a binding mechanism for the nation's highest court.