Justices Kagan and Barrett demand more Supreme Court security funding in rare appearance before Congress
By John Fritze, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand, CNN
(CNN) — Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett will implore House and Senate lawmakers Tuesday to provide millions of dollars more for security during a pair of rare hearings in which the justices will take on a wide range of questions from lawmakers for the first time since before the pandemic.
Kagan focused her testimony before a House subcommittee on the increase in threats faced by Supreme Court justices and other federal judges. There has been a spike in threats aimed at the justices in recent years.
“For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,” Kagan told House lawmakers. “But, as the chief justice has said, all members of the court continue to do their jobs as they believe legally right, adjudicating cases without fear or favor.”
Liberal justice Kagan and Barrett, who was placed on the high court by President Donald Trump, are appearing before House and Senate appropriations subcommittees to make a pitch for additional security funding. Justices last testified before Congress in 2019.
The judiciary has requested nearly $921 million for security overall, a $29 million increase compared to last year, for frontline security forces at federal courthouses. The ask includes an increase of nearly $15 million to make members of the Supreme Court Police available to protect the justices and their families, including at their homes.
Security incidents involving judges that the Marshals Service classified as of “significant concern” jumped 57% in 2025. Kagan also spoke to the security posture at the high court in an unusually personal tenor.
“I first joined the court in 2010. Our security was much different at that time,” Kagan said. “I did not have a security team of my own, and was accompanied by security personnel only when I participated in work-related, public events.”
The highest-profile incident involving a Supreme Court justice took place in 2022, when a Californian who now identifies as Sophie Roske flew across the country and appeared in Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s neighborhood with a bag full of guns and other weapons intending to kill the justice. Roske last year was sentenced to just over 8 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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