Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testify before the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Finn Gomez | Getty Images
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told a House subcommittee Tuesday that the “threat level” against her and other federal judges was “really high” as she testified about the high court’s 2027 budget request.
“These statistics sound abstract, but being on the receiving end of them is not,” Barrett told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
Barrett, who testified alongside Justice Elena Kagan, also told the panel that her security guards gave her a bulletproof vest after leaking to a news outlet that the Supreme Court had overturned a decision that said there was a constitutional right to abortion.
Barrett also said she was recently the target of an attack in which a caller falsely told police there had been a shooting at her home and raised voices.
Barrett and Kagan are the first Supreme Court justices to testify before Congress since 2019. That same year, Kagan and Justice Samuel Alito testified before the same subcommittee about the court’s budget request.
Both judges are scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
The Supreme Court is asking Congress to appropriate $228.4 million for fiscal year 2027, an increase of nearly 10% from the $207.8 million appropriated for 2026. This increase reflects increased spending on security-related measures.
Since the beginning of 2026, there have been a total of 512 investigations into threats against federal judges, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. By comparison, in all of 2025, there were 807 threat investigations.
This is sensational news. Please refresh the page for updates.
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a beat from the most trusted business news source.