Supreme Court seeks more security funding as justices testify to Congress

Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett pressed Congress for more than $228 million for the Supreme Court’s fiscal 2027 budget at a 10 a.m. hearing Tuesday in Washington, the first time sitting justices had testified before Congress since 2019. The House Appropriations Committee hearing put security at the center of the court’s spending request as the justices sought more money to protect themselves, the building and the public who enters it.

The request included more than $207 million for discretionary salary and expenses, about $14.6 million for security enhancements and nearly $15 million for expanded personal protection for the justices. The court also asked for $6.5 million to build a new visitor security screening facility outside its Capitol Hill building.

The spending push comes after a sharp rise in threats. Amy Coney Barrett was the target of an attempted swatting incident in May 2026. After the 2022 leak of the Dobbs decision, protests spread outside the court and outside the homes of conservative justices, and Brett Kavanaugh faced an attempted assassination at his Maryland home. Chief Justice John Roberts warned in March 2026 that “personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”

The Supreme Court Police now have allocated staffing for 233 officers, up from 189 just over three years ago and roughly 125 in 2018. The fiscal 2027 request also called for 821 full-time employees, compared with 488 discretionary full-time employees in fiscal 2016. Its mission covers dignitary protection for the justices, residential security, courtroom security and protection of the court building and grounds.

Congress gave the court a $30 million security funding boost in a late-2025 spending deal, money for more officers and other protections. In 2025, Senate Judiciary Democrats wrote to the U.S. Marshals Service that the level of threats was serious enough to prompt creation of a Judicial Security and Independence Task Force.