Opinion

JOHN YOO: Barrett and Kagan’s safety plea exposes the left’s war on the Supreme Court

Supreme Court requests $14.6M in extra security funding as threats against justices surge 38% this year

By John Yoo Fox News

Published July 15, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Barrett: Didn't expect this job meant explaining bulletproof vest to my son, 12

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says threats around the Dobbs leak forced her to bring home a bulletproof vest — and explain it to her 12-year-old son — as she warned lawmakers that the threat level facing federal judges remains "really high."

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"Maybe I lack imagination, but 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," Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Congress on Monday.

Justice Barrett was explaining in vivid terms why the Supreme Court had requested an additional $14.6 million, as part of its $228 million budget request, for enhanced security.

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Her fellow witness, Justice Elena Kagan, observed that threats against the Supreme Court had risen 38% this year. Justice Barrett herself had suffered a "swatting" attack earlier this year, in which someone falsely reported an armed shooter at her house. More alarmingly, an assassin attempted to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the 2022 leak of the court’s Dobbs opinion, which overturned Roe v. Wade and its creation of a constitutional right to abortion.

While the justices are often willing to write hundreds of pages setting out their opinions on constitutional law, they left unanswered the question of why threats have risen so sharply.

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The answer seems clear. Left-wing activists and leaders have waged war against the court. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for example, warned Justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch against overruling Roe. He appeared on........

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