Biden seeks funding boost to protect Supreme Court justices

President Joe Biden’s budget for the Justice Department seeks about $38 million in new funding to address an increasing number of threats against federal judges, with some of that money to be devoted to guarding Supreme Court justices and their families.

Biden’s budget proposes a new Office of Protective Services within the U.S. Marshals Service to centralize and coordinate security for the justices and other federal judges.

“It will develop a strong framework for fulfilling protective responsibilities for the Federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court of the United States, their families and other designated officials,” a Justice Department fact sheet released to reporters Monday afternoon said.

Officials are seeking $28.1 million for the new office in the next fiscal year, to support staffing by 51 U.S. marshals and two aides. Some of the funds would be directed to “ongoing residential security for Supreme Court justices,” while other funds would add personnel in a command center the marshals operate to track those providing protection in the field and to monitor security cameras “at secured locations such as residences,” the fact sheet said.

Biden’s proposal comes about a week after the judiciary sent Congress a request for about $19.4 million in additional security funding, including $5.8 million to hire 33 new Supreme Court police officers to protect the justices and $13.6 million to allow the court to take responsibility for “residential security duties” currently being provided by the Marshals Service.

Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the marshals to provide security at the justices’ residences in May 2022, after raucous protests broke out at some conservative justices’ homes following POLITICO’s report that a draft Supreme Court opinion indicated a majority of the court was poised to overturn the right to abortion established nearly a half century earlier in Roe v. Wade.

In early June, a California man was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home in the early morning hours. Nicholas Roske, who was allegedly armed with a handgun, a knife, pepper spray and burglary tools, allegedly said he planned to kill Kavanaugh due to the expected abortion decision and Supreme Court rulings undercutting gun regulation.

Roske was later charged in federal court with attempting to assassinate Kavanaugh, pleaded not guilty and is still awaiting trial. About a week later, Congress passed legislation authorizing protection for justices’ family members.

Justice Department officials have indicated they believe the Supreme Court Police are better suited to providing permanent protection for the justices than the Marshals Service. “We’re hoping this isn’t a long-term solution,” Garland said last year.

The Supreme Court’s new budget request says court officials agree with the marshals that it is impractical for them to continue providing long-term staffing for protection work for the justices and their families.

“This comes at great expense to the [Marshals Service], both in terms of financial cost and impact on its other core missions,” the court’s statement said. “The Supreme Court Police and the USMS agree that this request represents an overall better and permanent solution to protecting the Justices compared with attempting to maintain the current USMS coverage indefinitely.”

Court officials indicated in the budget documents that if they get the funding from Congress, they would first try to transition the work to contractors and gradually have new Supreme Court police officers take over the assignment.

Spokespeople for the Supreme Court and for the Justice Department declined to comment beyond the budget submissions.

The Justice Department is also seeking $10 million in funding in the new budget for grants to state and local governments to help them keep personal information about federal judges and their families from being released through public records requests and commercial databases. A law passed by Congress in 2022 gives federal judges power to seek to remove information from the internet such as their home addresses and vehicles they own.

In addition to providing security for justices and federal judges, the Marshals Service also protects prosecutors who come under threat. At the moment, that includes special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor pursuing two federal criminal cases against former President Donald Trump.

Between November 2022 and September 2023, the Marshals Service incurred about $6.4 million in security expenses related to Smith’s operation. It’s unclear whether the $28 million increase that the agency is requesting for protective services would be devoted, in part, to Smith.