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Two US Supreme Court justices have been lobbying Congress for millions in extra security funding for themselves and their colleagues to help protect them from a rise in threats to their safety.
The court's request of $228m (£170.3m) is a 53% increase from last year - most of which is being sought for strengthened security.
"The threat level is really high," Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative, said on Tuesday during a rare public appearance by members of the court before the House committee.
She and fellow Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, spoke of rising AI-fuelled cyber-attacks, the threat of drones, and heightened concerns about the effects of an increasingly polarised America.
In her opening remarks, Barrett described the difficulty of living under the constant threat of attack and the burden it had placed on her and her family.
"Six weeks ago, I was the victim of a swatting incident," she said, referring to when a person places hoax calls to emergency services to provoke a significant response from the police.
Barrett described the chaos of police cars surrounding her home after a false report was made of gunshots at her residence.
She also recounted how her security team had sent her home with a bullet proof vest around the time she ruled with the majority to overturn abortion laws in 2022.
"I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one," said Barrett.
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.
English (US) ·