Kagan, meanwhile, testified that the Supreme Court police expected a 38% rise in security threats this year, adding: “For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialise.”
She said cybersecurity attacks “have been up by magnitudes”, adding that “the rapid advancement of AI is making that more and more possible”.
As of July 1, 370 threats have been made to federal judges this fiscal year, according to a US Marshal Service report that was cited during the hearing.
Ranking member Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, said this represented a 31% rise since last year, which was “deeply alarming”.
The justices said their hope is that the number of people assigned to protect them around the clock will increase over time.
At the moment, they are typically given between four to eight security personnel depending on the occasion, Barrett said, adding that she hoped a rise in their security level would bring them “closer to cabinet level officials”.
“The threats are constant and they’re always there,” she said.
Among them is the case of a woman who was sentenced to eight years in prison in October after police discovered a bag full of guns in her car. She confessed intent to harm both herself and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Barrett and Kagan’s appearance before the House Appropriations Committee is the first by a sitting justice since 2019. Throughout Tuesday’s hearing, multiple members of the committee expressed the need for justices to appear before Congress more often, as public trust in America’s highest court has eroded over the years.
It comes just weeks after the Supreme Court’s last term concluded at the end of June, a period in which the justices ruled on a number of high-profile cases, issuing opinions on everything from tariffs to voting rights and birthright citizenship.
These rulings were both celebrated and agonised, with some detractors lashing out at justices and other members of the federal judiciary.
The latest review by the Pew Research Center found 50% of Americans hold a favourable view of the Supreme Court – down from 70% in 2022.
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