Kagan, meanwhile, testified that Supreme Court police expected a 38% increase in security threats this year, adding: “For some of us, those threats have been very close, and we all live with the knowledge that they may materialize again.”

He said cybersecurity attacks “have increased in magnitudes,” adding that “the rapid advancement of AI is making this increasingly possible.”

As of July 1, 370 threats have been made to federal judges this fiscal year, according to a U.S. Marshals Service report cited during the hearing.

Ranking member Democrat Rosa DeLauro said this represented a 31% increase since last year, which was “deeply alarming.”

The judges said their hope is that the number of people assigned to protect them 24 hours a day will increase over time.

At the moment, they are typically assigned between four and eight security personnel depending on the occasion, Barrett said, adding that he hoped an increase in their security level would bring them “closer to Cabinet-level officials.”

“The threats are constant and always there,” he said.

Among them is the case of a woman who was sentenced to eight years in prison in October after police discovered a bag full of weapons in her car. She confessed her intention to harm both herself and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Barrett and Kagan’s appearance before the House Appropriations Committee is the first by a sitting justice since 2019. Throughout Tuesday’s hearing, several committee members expressed the need for justices to appear before Congress more frequently as public trust in America’s highest court has eroded over the years.

It comes just weeks after the Supreme Court’s last term concluded at the end of June, a period in which the justices ruled on a series of high-profile cases, issuing opinions on everything from tariffs to voting rights to birthright citizenship.

These rulings were both celebrated and agonizing, with some critics lashing out at the justices and other members of the federal judiciary.

The Pew Research Center’s latest review found that 50% of Americans have a favorable view of the Supreme Court, up from 70% in 2022.