Supreme Court's Kagan, Barrett to testify on $20 million budget hike request

 HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — The Supreme Court asked Congress earlier this year for a $20 million budget increase.

Next week, Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett will tell the House why they deserve such a hike. The pair plans to testify before an appropriations subcommittee next Tuesday, when the women will explain their $228 million request.

Judicial testimony has become rare in recent years. The last time members of the high court spoke in a congressional hearing was 2019, when Justices Samuel Alito and Kagan met with the Financial Services and General Government panel.

This time, Kagan and Barrett may discuss the court’s request for a $19 million increase in security funding, including $14.6 million for building security and personal protection. The bench has come under fire from figures across the political spectrum, including President Donald Trump and Democratic lawmakers upset with its rulings.

Criticism of the judiciary, while far from new, has become more personal in the hyper-polarized political environment that’s fostered anger on both sides of the aisle. Trump, for example, furious over the court’s invalidation of his tariffs this past winter, has maintained a monthslong habit of lashing out against the bench in targeted social media posts.

“Certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly’ stood for,” he wrote on Truth Social in April. “Handing over 159 Billion Dollars in Tariff refunds to people who have been Ripping Off our Country for years, is unexplainable.”

A 6-3 majority, including two of Trump’s appointees, ruled that the president illegally imposed tariffs on goods from around the world. Democrats celebrated the decision but, more than four months later, reacted angrily to the bench’s expansion of executive power. The court ruled last week that Trump can fire officials of independent agencies over political disagreements.

“Trump’s MAGA Supreme Court just gave him a permission slip to turn independent federal agencies into members-only clubs for his golf buddies and cronies,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

The court has rarely responded to outside criticism, although Chief Justice John Roberts has occasionally pushed back on personal attacks against him and his colleagues. In March, he called for an end to the hostility that has undermined the bench's work.

“Judges around the country work very hard to get it right, and if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism,” Roberts said. “But personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”