{"id":17280,"date":"2026-07-14T15:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17280"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:19:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:19:04","slug":"supreme-court-justices-testify-before-congress-for-230m-security-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17280","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court justices testify before Congress for $230M security budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"is-breaking pill\">Breaking News<\/span><time class=\"time\" datetime=\"Tue Jul 14 2026 10:41:13 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)\">36 mins ago<\/time><!----><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"title\"><!--(-->Justice Kagan opening statement: Threats have come \u2018very close\u2019 to us<!--)--><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div><!--(--><!--(--><!----><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>Threats against Supreme Court justices have come \u201cvery close\u201d to members of the court, Justice Elena Kagan told House appropriators to defend the high court\u2019s fiscal 2027 budget request.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cThe Supreme Court Police expect a smaller but still substantial 38% annual increase in threats this year, which follows a 25% increase last year,\u201d Kagan said in her opening statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cFor some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>Kagan said the court is requesting an additional $14 million for salaries and expenses, a 7% increase, with recent budget growth driven largely by security.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cAside from annual inflationary increases, recent growth in the Court\u2019s budget has been almost entirely for security expenses,\u201d Kagan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>She said the court\u2019s security posture has changed dramatically since she joined the bench in 2010, when the Supreme Court Police focused mostly on protecting the building and justices did not have the kind of personal security details they do now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cWe began expanding our security program in earnest in 2017, initially at the behest of members of Congress,\u201d Kagan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>She pointed to the Dobbs leak, online attacks and physical security vulnerabilities as reasons the court has expanded residential security, threat assessments, cybersecurity and officer staffing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>Kagan said the court\u2019s approach has been to \u201cexpand incrementally but effectively to meet evolving security challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>Still, she said the justices remain committed to their work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cAll members of the Court continue to do their jobs as they believe legally right, adjudicating cases without fear or favor,\u201d Kagan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>Notaby, Kagan stressed to keep the House lawmakers questions focused on the budget request and not recent or pending Supreme Court decisions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--(--><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-item-body\">\n<p>\u201cWhile we cannot comment on decisions or pending cases, Justice Barrett and I are happy to answer any budget-related questions you have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--)--><!--)--><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Breaking News36 mins ago Justice Kagan opening statement: Threats have come \u2018very close\u2019 to us&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}