The Hefty Price of Demonizing SCOTUS
Supreme Court justices on both the conservative and liberal sides are asking for more security assistance due to increased threats of violence.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett made a rare appearance in both houses of Congress. They were there to discuss a budget increase for SCOTUS.
Kagan and Barrett appearing together in a show of solidarity is even more impressive when you consider that they vehemently disagree on many rulings. The presentation of a united front from the highest court in the land underscores the all-too-real and terrible state of divisiveness in our country.
The justices mainly asked for more funding to help bolster SCOTUS security amid the mounting threats to them and to their families — all because the extremists have determined it is totally acceptable to harm jurists when they dislike their rulings.
According to National Review’s Brittany Bernstein, “The pair noted threats against the High Court were up 25 percent last year, and are expected to rise 38 percent this year.” Barrett elaborated, “Those statistics sound abstract, but being on the receiving end of them is not.”
NEW: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett details the chilling threats her family has faced, revealing the terrifying moment her 12-year-old son discovered a bulletproof vest in her bedroom during the fallout of the Dobbs leak.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 14, 2026
Barrett also recounted a recent “swatting"… pic.twitter.com/Cn6yG0VTYO
Barrett gave Congress a few examples from her own experience. She described having to wear a bulletproof vest after the Dobbs leak and her 12-year-old son asking what it was and why she was wearing it. For Barrett, this was a sobering exchange that took some of her son’s innocence and added heaviness to her job.
She also described being swatted and another of her teenage sons discovering the street full of police. Thankfully, law enforcement were able to intervene, and the Barretts’ home went unmolested.
Finally, Barrett described receiving threatening packages in the name of Daniel Anderl, the 20-year-old son of Esther Salas, a U.S. district court judge. Back in 2020, a maniacal killer attacked Judge Salas’s family in an attempt to murder her, and Daniel was killed; her husband was wounded.
Kagan emphasized that political rhetoric from both parties against the Court incorrectly demonizes the individual justices and should instead focus on the law. "Whatever political figure says them, whatever party that political figure is a member of, these statements are really unhelpful,” she said. “They’re dangerous in terms of the individual justices’ security, and they’re not appropriate in the way to treat a coordinate branch of government.”
Here is New York Senator Chuck Schumer threatening the Court after the Dobbs leak.
FLASHBACK: Chuck Schumer in 2020: “I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you.”pic.twitter.com/35rcQVp3sY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 8, 2022
As much as The Wall Street Journal tries to imply that the threats are coming from President Donald Trump, we all know that the greatest threats come from the Left. I don’t think Elena Kagan has had to worry about an assassin coming from California to murder her like Justice Brett Kavanaugh did.
The justices further discussed the internal leaks — the most notable and harmful of which was Dobbs. Kagan emphasized the harmfulness of those sorts of leaks. “If you think that [internal deliberations] are going to appear on the front page of the newspaper, you pull back; you don’t have the kinds of conversations that I think the Court really depends on to do great work.”
Barrett then explained that, to help prevent future leaks, every Court employee must sign a nondisclosure agreement. The justices are also planning to use part of the budget increase to help protect the Court from cybersecurity threats.
The price of politicizing the Court is monetarily hefty. The justices are requesting $19 million more for security.
However, a much heavier price would be paid if something were to happen to a Supreme Court justice. It would be an official, possibly irreversible, shattering of our trust in ourselves as a people and in our politics.
