The Supreme Court has been plagued with dangerous and sick threats, including a recurring one where people arrange anonymous deliveries to justices’ homes, sent in the name of the dead son of a federal judge.
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Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Congress on Tuesday that she was a victim of that type of attack.
She also described a stark incident several years back, when the court was under particular threat amid an expected ruling on abortion, when her security team had her wearing body armor and she brought it home.
She put the armor in her bedroom and turned around to find her 12-year-old son standing in the door, wondering what it was.
“I didn’t know how to respond,” she said.
Justice Barrett and Justice Elena Kagan were making a rare appearance before Congress to defend the high court’s budget request for fiscal 2027, and security concerns dominated their opening remarks.
The justices said their police force saw a 25% increase in threats last year and is expecting a 38% increase this year.
“For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,” Justice Kagan said.
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Justice Barrett said the percentages are abstract, but the realities are stark.
Earlier this spring, she faced a swatting incident in which someone called in a report of a disturbance at her home. Local authorities responded.
She said that luckily her Supreme Court police detail intercepted the county officers and defused the situation.
Justice Barrett also described the bizarre fake-deliver threats, saying they’re often made in the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.
Anderl was slain in 2020 as he opened the door to their family home and was shot by a disgruntled lawyer targeting his mother.
The Washington Times reported earlier this year that the fake deliveries are such a problem that even the CIA has been called on to assist in the investigations.
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