Background: Steel fencing and barricades surround the Supreme Court ahead of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)/Inset: Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Bottom row, from left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts. Top row, from left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The need for security for the U.S. Supreme Court and its nine justices is so great that going into 2025 the requested discretionary budget is now $146 million, according to a recently released report for the federal judiciary.
The 86-page report explains that the increase in the Supreme Court’s discretionary spending, which is up by roughly a quarter from the current amount of around $121 million, is the result of multiple factors, but the primary one is the “evolving risks” posed to the justices’ safety. The report is produced by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
The entire budget request for the federal judiciary made public last week was $9.4 billion. Those expenses cover the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, district, circuit and bankruptcy courts, the U.S. International Trade Court, federal claims court and other related services besides security like defender, probation and pretrial services and more.
But the discretionary spending of $146 million has reached this new height for FY2025 because it also encapsulates a new request of $19.4 million just for a panoply of security services the high court says it needs.
In 2022, officers of the U.S. Marshals Service were tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned to provide round-the-clock security to Supreme Court justices’ homes.
For the upcoming year’s budget, the court now asks to replace that Marshals Service home protection with members of its existing Supreme Court Police. Making the switch would cost $13.6 million.
According to the report, $5.8 million is also needed for the “expansion of personal protection for the justices.”
There are other “program changes” proposed as well that come in at just under a full $1 million, including seven new IT security positions, human resources, legal procurement and other network administrative roles.
As noted by Reuters on March 4 when the budget request was first released, the whole of the rest of the federal judiciary has asked for $805.9 million for security due to an uptick in threats against officers of the court and federal judges. The outlet released an exclusive and comprehensive report this February that showed how over the last three years, increased political violence has driven up threats to federal judges by more than 50%. The U.S. Marshals Service reported in 2023 that there were at least 457 federal judges threatened.
Political divisions seemed to be front and center of the mind of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett only days ago when she penned her concurring opinion in the highly controversial and historic ruling in Trump v. Anderson, a decision that left the former president on the Colorado presidential primary ballot in 2024.
“The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election,” she wrote. “Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up.”
As Law&Crime reported last month, a man in Florida with a history of stalking and domestic violence was accused of threatening to “kill some judges and prosecutors in Palm Beach.”
“Yo. What happened to Trump happened to me first … Yo lets go kill some judges and prosecutors in Palm Beach I’m coming and you can’t do a f—— thing about it,” the man is accused of writing on Facebook.
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