WASHINGTON — Justice Amy Coney Barrett told members of Congress that after the Dobbs decision in 2022 restricting abortion access, her security detail sent her home with a bulletproof vest. Her 12-year-old son asked her about it.
“I didn’t know how to respond because maybe I lack imagination, but 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.
She and Justice Elena Kagan testified in front of Congress for the first time in seven years last month to request an increased budget for the justices’ personal security. The Supreme Court requested $225.1 million for fiscal year 2027, an increase of 29% from FY 2026 according to the Congressional Research Service. Their proposal came at a time when judges and other leading government officials face increasing death threats and violence.
“Whatever one’s view of the Supreme Court ruling, judicial officers, up to and including the justices of the Supreme Court, must be able to do their jobs without fear for their safety or their family safety,” Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., said.
A need to secure the justices’ safety was one of the main points of bipartisan agreement during the Senate and House hearings. The senators and representatives present at the hearings were overwhelmingly supportive of the justices’ request for more security funding.
“I just thought it was a great display of American politics at work,” said Sean Theriault, professor at the University of Texas Austin who teaches about U.S. Congress. “Our justices cannot be in harm’s way, and so that is a real need that needs to be addressed, and it was so great to see senators on both sides of the aisle trying to come up with a solution.”
Kagan said during her opening statement that the Supreme Court’s budget makes up 2% of the judicial branch’s budget, with the branch’s budget constituting 0.01% of the federal budget.
She also attributed most of the average 15% increase each year over the past five fiscal years to security. Over $14 million in the FY 2027 budget request is dedicated to 84 additional guards to protect the justices and the building.
Their pending requests for increased security are relatively small compared to the federal budget and the benefits of keeping the justices safe, Theriault said.
“We’re living in hyperpartisan times right now, where the American public, quite frankly, frequently crosses the line in public safety matters with regard to elected officials, and so it puts all of them much more at risk for their own personal safety, and not only their own personal safety, but the safety of their family,” Theriault said. “We want our justices to be safe, and if that means we need to spend more … it’s raindrops in the ocean compared to the federal budget.”
When Kagan joined the Supreme Court in 2010, security focused on the building, not the justices. However, in response to Congress’ suggestion to increase security for the justices in 2017, the Supreme Court began adding personal security to all the justices, not just the chief justice.
In more recent years, justices have been threatened. For example, in 2025, a 29-year-old man was sentenced to more than eight years in jail for his 2022 plan to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh. According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, Nicholas Roske traveled from Los Angeles to Kavanaugh’s residence in Maryland with a gun and zip ties, later admitting that he planned to “break in [and] shoot” the justice.
Roske stated that he was upset about the leaked Dobbs decision.
Overall American public opinion of the Supreme Court is also at a historic low, particularly among Democrats, according to a July 2026 Pew Research Center survey, with 53% of respondents reporting they have an unfavorable opinion of the court.
The Dobbs decision played a role in that growing discontent. 57% of respondents to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey said they disapproved of the court’s Dobbs decision. Kagan said during the hearing that threats to her colleagues’ lives drastically increased after Dobbs.
Now in 2026, Kagan said the justices have four to eight security personnel around them.
“They accompany us pretty much everywhere,” Kagan said. “Life has changed a great deal for all of us.”