A 12-year-old boy walked into his mother’s bedroom and found a bulletproof vest sitting on the table. His mother is a Supreme Court Justice, and she had no idea how to explain why she needed it.
That gut-wrenching moment, shared by Justice Amy Coney Barrett before Congress on Tuesday, captured the terrifying reality facing members of America’s highest court. Barrett and fellow Justice Elena Kagan made a rare joint appearance on Capitol Hill, the first time sitting justices have testified before Congress since 2019, to push for a nearly $230 million budget that includes significant security funding.
“They have required me and my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about,” Barrett told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
The court is requesting a 10% budget increase to $228.3 million for fiscal year 2027. Of that total, $14.6 million would go directly toward securing justices’ homes and protecting their families.
The numbers tell a chilling story. Supreme Court police expect a 38% increase in threats this year alone, following a 25% jump last year, according to Kagan’s testimony. And these aren’t empty words on social media. The threats have turned physical.
Barrett revealed that roughly six weeks before her testimony, her family was targeted by a swatting attack. Someone called in a false report claiming there was gunfire and yelling inside her home. When one of her teenage sons opened the front door to meet friends, he found the street filled with squad cars.
Only the presence of Supreme Court police officers stationed at the residence prevented the situation from escalating. They intercepted arriving local authorities and convinced them the report was a hoax before anyone attempted to enter the home.
“For some of us, those threats have come very close indeed,” Kagan told lawmakers. “And all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize.”
The intimidation tactics have grown increasingly creative and cruel. Officials say perpetrators now use weaponized, unsolicited food deliveries alongside swatting attacks. Barrett noted these deliveries are sometimes placed under the name of Daniel Anderl, the late son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Daniel was killed in 2020 when a lawyer posing as a FedEx delivery driver shot him at the family’s New Jersey home.
That tragedy spurred the passage of both New Jersey’s “Daniel’s Law” and the federal Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act in December 2022. Both laws shield judges’ and lawmakers’ personal information from public access. Yet the harassment continues.
Several other justices have also demanded heightened security as online harassment, doxxing, and physical threats escalate against the judiciary.
Despite the dangers, Kagan pledged the court won’t be intimidated. The justices will continue deciding cases “without fear or favor,” she said.
For Barrett, though, the personal cost is clear. A mother shouldn’t have to explain bulletproof vests to her children. A teenage boy shouldn’t open his front door to a wall of police cars. These are the realities facing families who serve on the nation’s highest court.
The budget request now moves through the appropriations process as threats against the judiciary show no signs of slowing.
