Kagan and Barrett warn of rising threats, seek more Supreme Court security

Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett pressed Congress for more money to protect the Supreme Court as the justices made their first congressional testimony since 2019. The House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees heard the case on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in the court’s first congressional testimony since 2019. The court asked for $228.4 million for fiscal 2027, nearly 10 percent more than the $207.8 million appropriated for fiscal 2026.

Kagan told lawmakers that most of the increase is tied to security, not routine operations. She said the court’s focus on protection began to sharpen after Antonin Scalia died in 2016 and accelerated sharply after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion leaked in 2022. Kagan also said the Supreme Court Police expect threats against the justices to rise 38 percent this year after a 25 percent increase last year, and Barrett said each justice currently has between four and eight security agents assigned, depending on schedule and risk.

Barrett said the threat climate was “really high.” She said she brought home a bulletproof vest around the time of the Dobbs leak and later had to explain it to her 12-year-old son. Barrett also said she was the target of a swatting incident about six weeks before the hearing, when her teenage son answered the door to police responding to a false emergency call.

The budget request includes money for more building officers, an off-site security office and new cybersecurity hires. U.S. Marshals Service data show 512 investigations of threats to federal judges since the start of 2026, compared with 807 investigations for all of 2025.

The hearing also covered the court’s ethics code and its emergency, or interim, docket. Support for the security request came from both parties. Republican Rep. Dave Joyce said judges should be able to do their jobs without fearing for their safety or their families, while Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer asked whether the new budget would reduce reliance on contract employees. The backdrop to the hearing included the 2022 attempt to kill Brett Kavanaugh at his home after the Dobbs leak and the 2020 murder of Judge Esther Salas’s son, Daniel Anderl, a case Barrett said she had encountered through intimidating false deliveries sent in his name.