{"id":138956,"date":"2026-07-13T22:13:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supreme-court-justices-to-testify-before-congress-on-increasing-security-funding-in-rare-appearan\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:13:31","slug":"supreme-court-justices-to-testify-before-congress-on-increasing-security-funding-in-rare-appearan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supreme-court-justices-to-testify-before-congress-on-increasing-security-funding-in-rare-appearan\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court justices to testify before Congress on increasing security funding in rare appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett will make a rare appearance before Congress Tuesday, weeks after the end of a historic term.<\/p>\n

The justices are appearing before a House appropriations panel as the court seeks millions of dollars to beef up security amid a rise in threats to the judiciary.<\/p>\n

Judges around the country have seen a rise in threats of violence<\/a> and intimidation, including a fake swatting call to police about Barrett\u2019s home in May.<\/p>\n

The hearing comes two weeks after the conservative-majority court finished handing down a series of major opinions<\/a>, including a decision that increased President Donald Trump\u2019s power over federal regulatory agencies and another that rejected his wide-ranging tariffs, sparking harsh personal criticism.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time justices have testified before Congress since 2019, and the two justices could face wide-ranging questions as they seek to keep focus on the budget.<\/p>\n

Security is central to the Supreme Court’s budget request<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court requested a total of $228 million for next fiscal year, a roughly 10% increase over the year before. Nearly $15 million of that would go to expanding personal protection for justices, with six more agents for each.<\/p>\n

Another $2 million would fund an off-site residential security post aimed at making emergency responses faster, as well as increasing the number of Supreme Court police officers.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Marshals Service, responsible for protecting judges, reported 564 threats in the government fiscal year that ended in September, an increase from the year before.<\/p>\n

That total includes threats to the hundreds of federal judges around the country, though the nine-member Supreme Court has not been immune.<\/p>\n

In May, Barrett\u2019s security detail worked with police to quickly deal with the call determined to be swatting, or a fake 911 call designed to provoke a police response. Last year, her sister was the victim of a bomb threat in Charleston, South Carolina, police said. No bomb was found.<\/p>\n

In 2022, shortly after the leak of a draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion decision, a would-be assassin was arrested<\/a> near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh with weapons and zip ties.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice John Roberts has condemned<\/a> the threats to all U.S. judges, saying during a speech in March that criticism of judicial opinions is understandable, but personally directed hostility is \u201cdangerous, and it\u2019s got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2026, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana)(AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett will make a rare appearance before Congress Tuesday, weeks after the end of a historic term. The justices are appearing before a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138956"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}