Two Supreme Court justices took the unusual step last Tuesday of appearing before Congress to ask for more money. Not for salaries, but for increased security. Specifically, Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testified in support of a request for an additional $14.6 million to hire six more personal security officers for each of the nine justices.
Justice Barrett explained why: “When they drop me off at 11 at night,” she testified, “it’s the same team that has to come back in the morning.” Similarly, Justice Kagan noted how dramatically things have changed: when she joined the Court just 16 years ago, she drove herself to work.
Congress is right to consider whether the justices need greater physical protection. It is important that judges not fear for their safety as they navigate difficult cases in service of the people of this country. But ironically, the justices in the far-right majority are partly responsible for the security environment facing the lower courts.
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I wrote about this in my latest article for The Hill.
Threats to federal judges (there are 890 authorized judgeships nationwide when all seats are filled) have risen to disturbing proportions. Retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner wrote in a March 2026 report for the American Bar Association: “The independence of the federal judiciary—a cornerstone of U.S. constitutional checks and balances—is under unprecedented threat.“ What’s more, she added, “President Trump’s actions, including attacks on judges, politicization of the Justice Department, and efforts to disregard legal constraints, have led to institutional erosion and increased threats to judges’ safety.”
The danger to the federal judiciary became painfully clear in 2020, when the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was shot and killed at the family’s New Jersey home by a man targeting the judge over one of her rulings. In 2025, the home of South Carolina Judge Diane Goodstein was burned down just weeks after she temporarily blocked the Trump Administration’s attempt to obtain millions of voters’ personal data from the state. Three people, including her husband, were injured.
Only Supreme Court justices receive round-the-clock, personal protective details.
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