Supreme Court Justices Testify Before Congress Over $230M Security Budget Amid Rise In Threats Taux Directeur [WZ0wP8zSfGE]

In recent years, the number of threats aimed at the federal judiciary has skyrocketed. With requests for more funding and resources to better protect them.

Two Supreme Court justices, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett, appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday to make the case for why more money was needed, including an additional $14 million.

"Aside from annual inflationary increases, recent growth in the courts, the budget has been almost entirely for security expenses," Kagan said.

Those security expenses have shifted in a major way, from protecting the actual Supreme Court building to protecting the justices themselves.

In the 2027 Judiciary Fiscal Year Congressional budget summary, those concerns were highlighted.

"Security incidents of significant concern increased for judges by 57% in FY2025 and are on pace to rise again in FY2026."

Barrett recounted a story from back in 2022, when her security detail asked her to wear a bulletproof vest.

When she took it off after arriving home, her 12-year-old son saw it and asked her about it.

"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," she said.

Barrett says multiple food deliveries have also been sent to her house under the name Daniel Salas. It's the same name as the son of federal judge Esther Salas, who was murdered back in 2020 by a man posing as a delivery driver.

In a video message released shortly after his death, Salas said, "This monster who had a FedEx package in his hand opened fire. But Daniel, being Daniel, protected his father and he took the shooter's first bullet directly to the chest. Daniel's father was also severely injured in the attack.

Also in 2022. police were called to Justice Brett Kavanaughs house after a California man flew across the country with a bag of weapons with the intent of shooting Kavanaugh.

Nicholas John Roske, 29, of onds stock Simi Valley, California, was sentenced ring in October 2025 to 97 months in federal prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release for attempting to kill a United States Supreme Court Justice.

The attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a disgusting attack against our entire judicial system by a profoundly disturbed individual, said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. The Department of Justice will be appealing the woefully insufficient sentence imposed by the district court, which does not reflect the horrific facts of this case.

Justices said the key turning point was the leak of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Some lawmakers raised concerns the growth in threats has been directly tied to an erosion of trust in neymar the institution.

Various scandals have also plagued the court in recent years, from leaked decisions to financial entanglements and conflict of interest contributing to a growing among the public that our government exists to serve special interest and not the public," said Rep. Rosa de Lauro, D-Conn.

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