Security for US Supreme Court justices' homes to get funding boost
By Nate Raymond
Dec 18 (Reuters) -A stopgap measure in the U.S. Congress to keep federal agencies funded through March 14 includes more than $25 million to bolster security at the homes of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices.
The new money was tucked into a 1,547-page measure unveiled by top Republicans and Democrats in Congress late Tuesday that lawmakers will race to pass to avert a partial government shutdown that will otherwise begin on Saturday.
The measure, which is expected to pass the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic-led U.S. Senate, was necessitated by Congress' continued failure to pass a budget for the 2025 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
The so-called continuing resolution generally would keep the roughly $6.2 trillion federal budget running at its current level.
But it includes new funding that would partly fulfill requests for new resources by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Marshals Service, which has been providing 24-hour protection of the justices' residences.
The measure provides $12 million to the U.S. Marshals Service for the protection of the justices' residences and nearly $13.6 million to the Supreme Court itself for the same purpose.
That latter provision appeared to mirror the judiciary's request earlier this year for $13.6 million to let the Supreme Court Police, its in-house security force, assume the duties currently served by the Marshals Service of protecting the justices' homes 24 hours a day.
The Marshals Service had itself in March sought $28.1 million to provide residential security for the justices for the full fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The Supreme Court and Marshals Service did not respond to requests for comment.
The funding requests come amid a surge in threats to judges nationally, as documented in a Reuters investigation. Serious threats against federal judges rose to 457 in fiscal year 2023, from 224 in fiscal 2021, the U.S. Marshals Service has said.
Congress in 2022 approved legislation to expand police protection to the families of the justices and senior officers of the court following the leak of a draft of the ruling overturning its landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide.
The draft and final ruling prompted protests outside the homes of members of the court's 6-3 conservative majority.
An armed California man was charged in 2022 with attempting to assassinate conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh after being arrested near his home. That man, Nicholas Roske, has pleaded not guilty and is set to face trial in June.
More recently, an Alaska man named Panos Anastasiou was charged in September with threatening to assault, kidnap and murder six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members. He has pleaded not guilty.
Read more:
Threats against US Supreme Court justices: Alaska man arrested
US Marshals Service seeks $38 million for new judge security programs
US Supreme Court seeks security funding to protect justices, homes
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston
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