Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett pitched increased security funding for the Supreme Court next year at a pair of rare congressional hearings for sitting justices Tuesday that covered issues ranging from emergency cases to judicial ethics.
Kagan and Barrett focused most of their testimony on increased security concerns at the court amid rising threats in recent years. The pair’s testimony to House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees marked the first time that justices have appeared before Congress since 2019.
Barrett told the House panel that increased threats have had a personal impact on her family. When she first started receiving intense personal threats, she was sent home with a bulletproof vest, which her 12-year-old son saw.
“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 said at the House hearing.
Barrett also said the justices have received deliveries at their personal homes in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of a federal judge killed by a disgruntled attorney in 2020 who was targeting his mother. Six weeks ago, Barrett also said she had been the victim of a “swatting” incident – where police were called to her house with a false report of gunshots – that was stopped by the Supreme Court police before local police entered her home.
