Attorneys general across the country urge congressional funding for Supreme Court protection

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Oct 3, 2026

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BOSTON — Attorneys general from every New England state have joined most of their colleagues in calling for full funding of the U.S. Supreme Court’s security needs in next fiscal year’s budget amid higher reported rates of security incidents against judges.

“As the chief legal officers of our respective states, we have witnessed an alarming spike in threats of violence against judges at every level of government,” states the letter. “Threats against the Supreme Court of the United States have reached a level not seen in many decades, and the threats have escalated not just in volume but in risk and credibility.”

The letter, dated Sept. 28, is addressed to Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Party leader Hakeem Jeffries as well as their Senate counterparts, Republican John Thune and Democrat Chuck Schumer.

It was drafted by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Tennessee. These signatories were joined by the AGs of 38 other states as well as the AGs of the territory of Samoa and the District of Columbia.

Not signing the letter were the AGs of Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Our constitutional order depends on the checks and balances provided by Article III officials,” the letter continued. “The Court can only play its assigned role in that order if the individual Justices are free to exercise judicial independence without fear or favor.”

The Supreme Court has requested $14.6 million to expand personal protection for the Supreme Court justices, more security personnel at the Supreme Court building, and $2 million for an off-site command post to coordinate residential protection, according to a summary provided by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office.

The letter cites a surge of 57% in fiscal year 2025 of “security incidents of significant concern” according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which the letter says is “unprecedented in modern American history.”

Among those incidents were the May swatting — or the false report of a situation involving a heavy police or SWAT team response to a residence — of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s home; the 2022 assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home, and the 2020 attack at the home of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas during which son Daniel Anderl was murdered. That last assassin, the AGs note, had also “developed a dossier on (Supreme Court) Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“These incidents are not isolated anecdotes. They reflect a sustained and troubling pattern,” the AGs note in their letter.

“Those who threaten our Justices strike at an institution the whole country depends on, whatever their view of its decisions. The loss of a member of the Court to political violence would be more than a national tragedy. It would harden every disagreement that followed and risk descent into a cycle of retaliation no institution could easily arrest,” the AGs wrote. “We must defend the institutional stability and security of our High Court to protect our cherished way of life.”