As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins was among the lawmakers to question Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan during their rare appearance before Congress Tuesday.
This marks the first time since 2019 that Supreme Court justices have spoken to members of Congress in this capacity.
“It’s appalling to me that some of the rhetoric is coming from public officials on both sides of the aisle who should know better than to levy personal and political attacks against the judiciary and the Court specifically,” Sen. Collins said in her introductory remarks.
She went on to cite as an example Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer publicly telling Justice Brett Kavanaugh that he would “pay the price” for his stance on Roe v. Wade, although she did not mention either the lawmaker or the justice by name.
“Other public officials have called the Court ‘corrupt,’ ‘out of control,’ and ‘serving an extremist agenda,'” said Collins. “This overheated language, this completely inappropriate rhetoric against the Supreme Court endangers the lives of the justices and erodes public trust in our system of government.”
“I believe that all of us must avoid that kind of dangerous and disturbing rhetoric because it could in fact trigger violence,” she added.
Collins then asked Barrett about the rationale for having the Supreme Court take over residential security for the justices from the U.S. Marshal Service.
Barrett explained that the Marshal Service was always intended to be a temporary security solution and that they were unable to continue providing staffing for the Court’s needs.
“In fact, one reason for our supplemental request that was somewhat unexpected is that the Marshals unexpectedly told us that they would not be able to continue providing the residential protection and that they were going to end it quicker than we had anticipated,” said Barrett.
According to Barrett, security is now fully being handled by the Supreme Court police through their officers and contractors.
Collins then asked Kagan about a $6.5 million request for the Supreme Court’s Building and Ground Accounts to “begin the process for an exterior screening facility for visitors to the Court,” searching for an explanation as to why the Court needs that as a separate facility.
“Right now, visitors walk into the Court and that’s where they’re checked,” Kagan said. “And just as the Capitol decided that for security reasons it wished to create a visitors center that was off the main premises…that’s what we’re looking into as well.”
The Court is asking Congress for a total of $228 million for the next fiscal year, about a 10 percent increase over the amount they were given previously.
About $15 million of this funding would be directed towards increased security for the justices, including an additional six personal protection agents for each member of the Court.
An additional $2 million would be earmarked for an off-site residential security post designed to improve emergency response times.
The number of Supreme Court police officers would also be increased under the expanded budget.
