Kagan, Barrett warn of rising threats in Supreme Court budget hearing

Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett told House and Senate appropriators that the Supreme Court was asking for $228.4 million for fiscal 2027, about 10% more than the $207.8 million Congress approved for fiscal 2026. The justices appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and its Senate counterpart as the court pressed for more money largely tied to security, not operations.

The Supreme Court police force expects threats against justices and judges to rise 38% this year after a 25% increase last year. Each justice currently has a security detail of four to eight law-enforcement officers, and the budget request would add $14.6 million to put six more agents on each detail, for 54 new officers in all. The request also seeks 25 officers dedicated to the Supreme Court building and another $2 million for an off-site residential security post intended to speed emergency response.

The court’s security push dates to the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia in Texas, when the nearest U.S. marshals were two hours away.

Barrett brought home a bulletproof vest around the time of the leaked draft opinion that later led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and struggled to explain it to her then-12-year-old son. A recent swatting hoax and other threats have affected her family.

The hearing was the first public congressional testimony by sitting justices in more than seven years, and the first since Kagan and Justice Samuel Alito testified in 2019 on the court’s budget. Lawmakers still pressed on transparency, enforcement of the court’s ethics code and its broader operations, including the emergency docket.