Justices Kagan and Barrett demand more Supreme Court security funding in rare appearance before Congress

By John Fritze, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered an unusual and personal plea for additional security funding for the Supreme Court on Tuesday, using a rare hearing before Congress to address for the first time addressing personal threats that have been directed against her and her family.

Barrett, who was joined Tuesday by Justice Elena Kagan in requesting millions more for judiciary security, recalled two incidents – a recent swatting attempt at her home and the issuance of bullet proof vest when, she said, threats against her were “particularly intense.”

“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,” Barrett said.

Police in Washington’s Virginia suburbs said in May that they had been called to the home of a Supreme Court justice for what they determined was a “fictitious” report of gunfire. CNN later confirmed that it was Barrett’s home that was targeted, though neither the justice nor the court had previously publicly acknowledged the incident.

Barrett said Tuesday that one of her teenage sons opened the door that evening to head out with friends and was confronted with an armada of police cars that “had responded to a false report of gun shots and raised voices in my home.”

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.

Kagan homage to Lindsey Graham

Kagan offered a brief homage to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham during her opening statement, saying that the South Carolina Republican had not only voted for her confirmation in 2010 but also took seriously his role in meeting with and questioning her.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham had an outsized role in questioning many of the current justices.

Kagan also noted a viral moment when Graham had asked Kagan where she was the previous Christmas. Like all members of the Jewish faith, Kagan responded, she was “probably at a Chinese restaurant.” The committee room erupted into laughter at Kagan’s response.

“Many people said to me afterward that was the moment my confirmation was sealed,” Kagan told the lawmakers Tuesday.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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