Justice Amy Coney Barrett Had to Wear Bulletproof Vest After Dobbs Leak
Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recounted the threats against her life after the leak of the Dobbs decision during a Tuesday hearing.
The Supreme Court asked Congress to provide an additional $14.6 million for security in the fiscal year 2027 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill. During a House Appropriations FSGG Committee hearing, Barrett described being sent home in a bullet proof vest after the decision in Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization was leaked in May 2022.
“They have required me [and] my children to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about,” Barrett said. “One example is when threats to my life were particularly intense a few years ago around the time of the Dobbs leak, my security detail sent me home with a bulletproof vest and I carried it into my house, put it into my bedroom, dropped it down on a table, turned around and my 12-year-old son was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. And he wanted to know what it was and why I had it.”
“And I didn’t know how to respond because 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,” Barrett continued.
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Barrett was a target of a swatting incident in May at her home in Fairfax County, Virginia. A caller, reported to be a neighbor, called the police to report hearing two or three gunshots and voices arguing inside the residence, according to SCOTUSBlog. Local officers and Supreme Court Police detail determined the call was a hoax.
The justice said her teenage son witnessed several police cars on the street.
I was very, very grateful that I had Supreme Court police outside my home because they were able to stop and meet with and explain to the county police that it had been a false alarm,” Barrett said.
Many justices have received threatening anonymous deliveries “designed to intimidate and harass” them, Barrett added. She said many of the deliveries are sent in the name of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ son, who died from a bullet wound after a lawyer posed as a delivery driver and targeted the family at their home in July 2020.
Justice Elena Kagan testified that threats against the justices “have come very close,” suggesting that she received threats against her life.
“For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,” Kagan said.
An assailant attempted to assassinate Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh outside of his Maryland home in June 2022, shortly following the Dobbs leak. The alleged attempted assassin, Nicholas Roske, told officers that he planned to kill Kavanaugh.
Mass protests erupted in front of the six conservative justices’ homes following the leak.
The FSGG funding bill would provide $207 million for the Supreme Court, almost $44 million more than it received in the current fiscal year. Justices have not testified before Congress on budget requests since 2011.
LifeNews Note: Nicole Silverio writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
