The Supreme Court has never been so central to the political system, nor so public in the way it exercises power — be it snarling the pre-election prosecution of Donald Trump, blocking the president’s tariffs or scaling back the Voting Rights Act. Yet even as the court boasts sweeping authority, it remains reflexively opaque to the public. The prospect that Americans grow restless at being ruled by nine robed lawyers they never see doing their jobs has the potential to fuel a crisis of legitimacy.
The Supreme Court cloaks its deliberations in secrecy and still banishes cameras from its ornate courtroom. Court officials are loath to discuss the security measures being undertaken to protect the justices. But the portrait of an institution straining to transform itself and its security apparatus comes into focus through an in-depth review of budget documents and videos posted on an officer-hiring website, as well as interviews with court insiders and little-noticed public comments by the justices.
With heightened security has come a slew of financial and logistical challenges for the high court, as well as a significant personal and professional impact on the justices themselves. Some of the justices have complained that the growing security envelope has complicated their lives, limiting their ability to go places and changing the way they interact with the public.
The Supreme Court has also become a lightning rod in recent years, fueling outcries over ethics controversies as well as a series of polarizing rulings that have reshaped American life. With more contentious debates over the court and more concern about security, the justices appear increasingly less likely to venture into what’s perceived as enemy territory — which only risks further cloistering them in an ideological cocoon.
With the Supreme Court’s approval rating dropping as low as 39 percent last year and now appearing to stand at about 46 percent the demand for greater oversight and accountability seems to be spreading in Washington.
Congress has granted recent requests for tens of millions of dollars in additional taxpayer funds for the justices’ security, but some lawmakers are calling for more transparency from the high court — including congressional testimony from the justices — about why its costs are spiking and how officials have decided what level of protection the justices require.
“We provide money for the Supreme Court,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in April. “They’ve never come up and tell us what they’re doing with the money that we appropriate.”
Now, as the justices wind down their term and continue making decisions on some of the most consequential and controversial issues of our time, they remain deeply constrained by security details, armored vehicles and the kind of onerous protocols that mean they can’t even go to the grocery store by themselves.
‘Green around the gills’
Shortly after 1 a.m. on June 8, 2022, a Washington Flyer taxi pulled up on a dark, leafy street in Chevy Chase, Maryland, directly in front of the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Due to protests that had broken out at conservative justices’ homes after POLITICO disclosed a draft Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, two deputy U.S. Marshals were on duty outside Kavanaugh’s house. For the overnight shift, they were stationed in two white SUVs.
The arrival of the taxi caught the attention of at least one of the marshals. Deputy Marshal Ashlee Curtis opened her door, briefly turning the interior lights on in her vehicle, before closing the door about 20 seconds later. The occupant of the taxi got out with a black rolling suitcase, stepped onto the sidewalk outside Kavanaugh’s home and quickly walked past Curtis’ SUV, before continuing down the sidewalk and around the corner, according to surveillance video.
Curtis said in a court filing that she kept her eyes on the unexpected visitor until the person disappeared around the corner. The taxi lingered for a few minutes, then drove off and the monotony of late-night guard duty at Kavanaugh’s home returned.
It was shattered about 35 minutes later as a local police radio in one of the SUVs crackled to life with a call for “a suicidal/homicidal” person on the street just behind Kavanaugh’s residence. Curtis said she and her partner left their SUVs and took up positions outside the justice’s house, while she called the Montgomery County police and learned that the radio call involved a person intending to kill the justice.
Sophie Roske, who had called 911 and told the police about her plan to kill Kavanaugh and then die by suicide, was taken into custody by the local police without incident.
Police who searched Roske’s luggage in 2022 found this Glock pistol and ammunition. | U.S. District Court of Maryland
The contents of Roske’s suitcase were chilling: a Glock 9mm semiautomatic pistol, 37 rounds of ammunition, pepper spray, tools, zipties, a black face mask, duct tape and 2 lock-picking sets.
No one was hurt, but the incident and the stark criminal charge that would later be filed against Roske — attempted assassination of a Supreme Court justice — proved to be the driving force behind moves to implement tougher security around the justices.
During a virtual recruiting event in April, a Supreme Court Police officer said the attempt on Kavanaugh’s life led directly to the ongoing surge in security.
“They arrested someone, it was very national news, that had attempted to come up to Justice Kavanaugh’s home,” Sgt. Mark Hosier said. “This is right after the leak of the case came out. … It showed the need for a serious, growing residential security unit, which is still in the process. … And we are hiring for all these units right now, at the same time.”
The episode also reinforced longstanding doubts about the role the Marshals Service has played in protecting the justices and hastened moves toward bringing more of their security under the high court’s direct control.
Historically, the marshals have been tasked with protecting justices only on a part-time basis — typically when they traveled outside Washington. After the Dobbs leak in 2022, the marshals’ role expanded abruptly, because the court’s own police force simply lacked the personnel to provide round-the-clock protection of the justices’ homes and families. The Supreme Court Police, which began as a guard force for the building, found itself straining to meet the security demands involved in the justices’ day-to-day lives, public appearances and travels across the country and the globe.
Kavanaugh was upset about the close call at his home. He complained privately that deputy marshals with little experience were assigned to the guard duty, according to a person who regularly speaks with some of the justices who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Public records bear out the validity of his complaint. Curtis, one of the two deputies on duty outside Kavanaugh’s home that night, filed a declaration in court indicating she’d been a marshal for less than five months at the time of the incident. She left her job in a Colorado sheriff’s office earlier that year and appears to have graduated from the Marshals’ basic training program just weeks before she was posted on the justice’s lawn. Curtis did not respond to a request for comment placed through a Marshals Service spokesperson, who added that the Marshals Service was unaware of Kavanaugh’s complaint or concerns.
Source:
www.politico.com
