# Justices Barrett and Kagan Warn Congress: Rising Threats Are Reshaping Their Lives — and They Need More Money to Fight Back
**WASHINGTON** — In a rare and remarkably candid appearance before Congress, two U.S. Supreme Court justices told lawmakers Tuesday that violent threats against them and their families have escalated to the point where they can no longer shield their children from the realities of the job.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, testified alongside Justice Elena Kagan before House and Senate appropriations panels, pressing Congress to approve a significant funding increase for court security. It marked the first time justices have appeared before lawmakers since 2019, underscoring how seriously the nation’s highest court now views the danger facing its members.
## A Bulletproof Vest and a Confused 12-Year-Old
Barrett recounted a moment from 2022, in the tense weeks after a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked to the press, when her security detail sent her home with body armor. ,She told the panel that in the spring of 2022, “My security detail sent me home with a bulletproof vest” when threats to her life escalated after the leak to a media outlet of a draft Supreme Court opinion.,
The moment turned into an uncomfortable conversation with her son. ,She recalled carrying the vest into her house, setting it down, and turning around to find her 12-year-old son standing in the doorway asking what it was.,
,”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 added that the increased threats “have required me to my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about.”,
## Swatting Call Targeted Her Home
Barrett also confirmed publicly for the first time that she was the target of a “swatting” incident in May — a hoax emergency call meant to trigger a heavily armed police response at a victim’s address. ,Police in Washington’s Virginia suburbs had said in May that they were called to the home of a Supreme Court justice over what they determined was a “fictitious” report of gunfire, and CNN later confirmed the target was Barrett’s home, though neither the justice nor the court had previously acknowledged it.,
Barrett framed the danger in stark terms for lawmakers weighing the court’s budget request. ,She told the panel that “the threat level” against her and other federal judges “is really high,” adding that “those statistics sound abstract, but being on the receiving end of them is not.”,
## Threats Against the Judiciary Climbing Sharply
Kagan, an Obama appointee, laid out the scale of the problem with hard numbers. ,She warned Congress that police expect threats against Supreme Court justices to rise nearly 40% this year, with the Supreme Court Police Department projecting a “very substantial” 38% increase following a 25% increase the year before., Members of Congress aren’t immune either — ,Kagan noted that the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police recently testified that threats against Congress are up 50% this year compared to 2025.,
Kagan also reflected on how dramatically security around the justices has changed since she joined the bench. ,She said that when she first joined the court in 2010, “our security was very different,” with the Supreme Court Police focused almost exclusively on protecting the building and no personal security team assigned to her outside of official public events., ,That began to change in 2017, she said, “initially at the behest of members of Congress.”,
The danger is not hypothetical. In 2022, a California man armed with a gun, knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home after threatening to kill him — a case that has become a touchstone for how far threats against justices can go. That individual was ultimately sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Barrett’s family has faced additional scares. Last year, her sister was targeted by a bomb threat in Charleston, South Carolina; no explosive device was ultimately found. Kagan told lawmakers the danger has occasionally hit close to home for her colleagues as well, saying ,”for some of us, those threats have come very close.”,
## What the Court Is Asking For
The budget request driving Tuesday’s testimony seeks a substantial boost in funding. ,The Supreme Court is asking Congress to appropriate $228.4 million for fiscal year 2027, a nearly 10% increase over the $207.8 million appropriated for 2026., Court officials say the added money is critical. ,The increase reflects higher spending on security-related measures, both for the protection of justices and for cybersecurity.,
Much of that new spending would go directly toward personal protection. ,The court requested $18.9 million to expand personal protection for justices, build an off-site security command post, and hire cybersecurity experts, with the largest single line item — $14.6 million — adding six protection agents per justice along with 25 additional security officers and support staff., Justices say the added cybersecurity funding is equally urgent given the sophistication of modern digital threats.
## Bipartisan Sympathy, Continued Scrutiny
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared largely receptive to the request. ,Republican Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio, who chairs the House subcommittee, said “judicial officers, up to and including the justices of the Supreme Court, must be able to do their jobs without fear for their safety or their family’s safety.”, Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the panel’s senior Democrat, echoed the call for adequate funding, even as Democrats used the hearing to press the justices on other matters — particularly the court’s ethics code, adopted in 2023 without any formal enforcement mechanism.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut criticized the code’s self-policing nature, prompting Kagan to acknowledge she supports some form of enforcement, while cautioning that any system would have to originate from within the judiciary itself rather than Congress or the executive branch.
The hearing arrived just weeks after the court closed out a contentious term that saw rulings expanding presidential authority over federal agencies while striking down sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration — decisions that drew fierce criticism from political figures on both ends of the spectrum and fueled the very atmosphere of hostility the justices say now threatens their safety.
Chief Justice John Roberts has previously addressed the broader climate facing the federal bench, distinguishing between legitimate criticism of rulings and threats aimed at judges personally, which he has called dangerous conduct that must end.
Lawmakers are expected to weigh the Supreme Court’s security request alongside broader judiciary funding in the coming weeks as the fiscal 2027 appropriations process moves forward.