Sad state of affairs from the Wall Street Journal.
Supreme Court Justices don’t often appear before Congress—the last time was 2019—but Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett made the trek to Capitol Hill Tuesday with an urgent request: They need more protection from violent threats.
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The request seeks about $14 million to fund six additional security agents per Justice (they have four to eight now, depending on the need) to ease the burden on security in Washington, D.C., and when the Justices travel. It also seeks 25 more officers for security at the Court and $2 million to fund a command post to “coordinate assignments and protection coverage” for the Justices at home.
That’s a bargain, considering the rising risks. The threat level is “really high,” Justice Barrett told lawmakers. “I wish it weren’t so, but it’s necessary for protection and daily activities to have a security detail,” she added. “The threats are constant and they’re always there.”
Justice Barrett’s home was targeted this year in a swatting attack, in which a fake disturbance is called into police to send law enforcement to a Justice’s home. She told lawmakers “threatening deliveries” sometimes arrive in the name of federal Judge Esther Salas’s son, who was shot in 2020 at the family’s home by a gunman posing as a delivery driver.
In 2022 a man tried to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home. The Justices have been issued bulletproof vests, a fact that Justice Barrett said was difficult to explain to her 12-year-old son.
In his 2024 year-end report, Chief Justice John Roberts said threats against judges had more than tripled in the last decade. …
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The threats reflect a larger societal trend of violence, but they are also the result of politicians who politicize the Court. President Trump’s personal attacks on Justice Barrett and Justice Neil Gorsuch after they ruled against his tariff policy might trigger some MAGA lunatic.
… In 2020 Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) declared that Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch had “released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) has made smearing the Justices as corrupt a personal mission. The social-media left is vitriolic and often unhinged.
It doesn’t take much for a disturbed individual to turn this into a cause to kill. This is why it will cost more to protect the Justices and their ability to rule on cases without intimidation or fear for their safety. The price for the country will be far greater if a Justice is killed.