Supreme Court requests security funding increase following threats

The Supreme Court has asked Congress for about $12.4 million in additional funding to better protect the justices and the court building following recent threats — a request that comes after the arrest of a man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home.

The judiciary’s annual budget request, which was released on Thursday, includes a $5.9 million increase to expand the Supreme Court Police’s protective activities for the justices and a $6.5 million increase for physical security improvements to reinforce the Supreme Court building.

“On-going threat assessments show evolving risks that require continuous protection,” the budget documents state. “Additional funding would provide for contract positions, eventually transitioning to full-time employees, that will augment capabilities of the Supreme Court police force and allow it to accomplish its protective mission.”

The request comes after a man was arrested and charged with attempted murder near Kavanaugh’s home in June, when the man allegedly told officials he wanted to kill the justice. 

The purported incident followed the extraordinary leak of the high court’s draft decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh was one of five justices to join the majority opinion upon its official release, which ended federal abortion protections and closely mimicked the leaked draft.

Following the leak, Congress passed additional funding to extend security protections to the family members of the justices and “any officer” of the bench, if the court marshal deemed it necessary.

Officials also erected a seven-foot black security fence around the court building, which remained in place for nearly four months.

The Kavanaugh incident and other threats to the court’s conservative members have at times led to accusations from Republicans that Democrats aren’t taking their security seriously enough. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sparred with Attorney General Merrick Garland over the Justice Department’s handling of last summer’s protests outside the justices’ homes during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

In his annual report on the judiciary in December, Chief Justice John Roberts opened by thanking court personnel for helping to ensure judges’ safety.

“The law requires every judge to swear an oath to perform his or her work without fear or favor, but we must support judges by ensuring their safety,” Roberts wrote. “A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear.”