Death threats and bulletproof vests: Justice Amy Coney Barrett gives harrowing look into life of a justice after fall of Roe

Justice Amy Coney Barrett offered a rare personal account July 14 of how security threats have affected her family since the 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, recalling the moment her young son discovered her bulletproof vest and a recent “swatting” attack that brought police to her home. 

Barrett and Justice Elena Kagan appeared before a House appropriations subcommittee to urge Congress to approve increased security funding for the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan said threats against the justices rose 25% in 2025 and are projected to increase another 38% in 2026.

“Those statistics sound abstract, but being on the receiving end of them is not,” Barrett testified, adding that “they have required me — and my children — to think about and see things that children should not have to see or think about.”

Recalling the intense period immediately after Politico published a leaked draft of the Dobbs opinion in May 2022, Barrett, a mother of seven, said her security detail instructed her to wear a bulletproof vest while traveling home from work because of heightened death threats against her.

“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,” she said.

“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.”

About a month after the draft opinion leaked, authorities arrested an armed man near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home. Prosecutors said he was carrying a Glock pistol, ammunition, a knife, zip ties, and other items and intended to assassinate the justice. He later pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

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Barrett also revealed that she was targeted in a “swatting” incident about six weeks ago, when a false emergency report prompted police to respond to her suburban Virginia home in late May. Swatting involves making a false emergency report intended to provoke an armed police response at another person’s home.

“One of my teenage sons opened the door to go out with friends and saw in our street that it was full of police cars, who had responded to a false report of gunshots and raised voices in my home,” she said.

“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 and so the police did not actually attempt to enter our home,” Barrett said of the incident.

She said she and several other justices have also received “threatening anonymous deliveries designed to intimidate and harass us.”

Kagan said some threats against the justices “have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize.” 

Although she stressed that the justices continue to perform their duties “without fear or favor,” Barrett warned that the threat level facing the judges remains “really high.”

The joint appearance by Barrett, appointed by President Donald Trump, and Kagan, appointed by former President Barack Obama, marked the first time Supreme Court justices have testified before Congress on the budget since 2019, according to the New York Post. 

The court is seeking about $228 million for fiscal year 2027 — a roughly 10% increase — with a significant portion dedicated to security enhancements. This includes nearly $15 million for personal protection details and about $2 million for home security measures.