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Supreme Court Justices give chilling accounts of threats to their safety
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testify before the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
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The Supreme Court did something Tuesday that it has not done in seven years. It sent two of the justices to Capitol Hill to testify about the court’s budget request for the coming year. The budget has grown dramatically in recent years because of the equally dramatic rise in the number and intensity of threats to the justices’ safety.
Designated as the court’s representatives were Justice Elena Kagan, appointed by President Obama, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by President Trump.
As Kagan pointed out in her testimony, it was Republican Darrell Issa and Democrat Elijah Cummings who insisted that the court beef up its security ten years ago after Justice Antonin Scalia died in his sleep on a hunting trip, with no security anywhere nearby to respond quickly.
“They said, kind of like, we think you’re crazy, you know, that that you have less security than director of the Office of Personnel Management does,” she recounted the Congressmen as telling the Court, “and we think that you have to do better.”
Before that, the justices basically had little to no security. They drove their own cars to work; went to the movies and shopped at supermarkets unaccompanied, and did their private travel on their own. And frankly, they liked it that way, because having security is personally invasive.
In recent years, however, the court has undertaken major changes, including continually expanding the court police force to protect the justices and their homes at all times, and funding additional cybersecurity measures.
And yet, as Justice Kagan pointed out, the Court’s $207 million budget request is less than one tenth of one percent of the entire federal budget.
The justices spoke at length Tuesday about how rising threats impacted their lives. Justice Barrett came prepared with two harrowing stories. First was the day she brought home a bullet-proof vest.
“My 12-year-old son was standing in the doorway of my bedroom and he wanted to know what it was,” she testified, “and I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one.”
She also described how just six weeks ago, her house was swatted, with local police responding to a fake emergency call. Local police could have stormed her home, but for the fact that her own security detail was there to prevent it.
Indeed, threats have deeply affected judges across America. After U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas’s 20-year old son was murdered by a gunman seeking to kill her, many federal judges have reported receiving packages bearing the name of her slain son. Those threats, Justice Barrett testified, “are meant to intimidate and they’re meant to harass.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), asked questions about President Trump’s furious response to adverse rulings in the tariff and birthright citizenship cases, and whether Trump’s heaping insults on the court could play a role in jeopardizing the safety of some justices. Kagan had a two-part reply.
“Criticism is fair game. I mean, go for it. You know, life in the big city is that you’re subject to all kinds of criticism. But intimidation is a different thing entirely. And when political figures of any stripe are trying to intimidate judges,” she said, “that’s where we really have crossed the line.”
The hearings were not confined to issues of safety. Congresswoman Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) asked about the Supreme Court’s ethics requirements, noting that members of Congress and the executive branch are limited to gifts under $50, while the Supreme Court has no such limit.
She is supporting a bill that would impose upon the Supreme Court the same restrictions on receiving gifts that apply to Congress. And she called for an enforcement mechanism for the ethics rules adopted by the Supreme Court itself.
But Justice Kagan, who said she favors an enforcement mechanism, added that creating such a system is “hard.” After all, as she noted, “you wouldn’t want either the President or Congress” imposing a system on the court because that could well lead to compromising the independence of the judiciary.
One idea that Kagan seemed to like would be to create a panel of distinguished retired judges to enforce the court’s ethics code. But Justice Barrett seemed unpersuaded.
“Who selects the judges? How is the panel composed? There’s just a lot of complexity,” that hasn’t been worked out, she said. The disagreement between the two was, if anything, illustrative of just how hard it was to get the court to finally agree on even the relatively porous ethics code it voluntarily adopted in 2023.
The Justices were also questioned about the court’s emergency docket, dubbed by critics “the shadow docket.” These cases were extremely rare until the Trump administrations.
The critical difference between the emergency docket and the so-called merits docket is that emergency docket appeals often leapfrog over the lower courts, allowing the high court to decide cases without full briefing and argument, and inevitably without much, if any, explanation.
Critics, including Justice Kagan, have often criticized these unsigned and unexplained emergency docket orders for making it difficult for lower courts to know what the law is. Some have in fact accused the court of inviting the Trump administration to treat the docket like a fast-pass to getting policy rubber-stamped.
Questioned by Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Kagan observed that part of the reason for the Court’s increasing use of the emergency docket comes from the fact that “we’ve granted a number of these…And when people know that relief is available, there are a lot of smart lawyers out there in the world who are going to say, ‘Why don’t we take our shot at that?’” In other words, the court’s own behavior may have invited the existing problem to metastasize.
Utah wildfire response continues despite loss of helicopter crew, with containment standing at 24 percent.
Published On 9 Aug 2026
A pilot and one crew member have been confirmed dead after their firefighting helicopter crashed while battling a massive wildfire in central Utah.
The Sikorsky S-64 ‘Skycrane’, operated by Helicopter Transport Services under contract with the United States Forest Service, went down about 10am local time on Friday (16:00 GMT) near Richfield, in the Three Creeks Reservoir area southwest of the city, close to the southeastern edge of the Widemouth 2 fire.
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The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) confirmed the deaths on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the crash, saying the two crew members were “fatally injured” and extended its “condolences to the friends and family of the deceased”.
In a situation report, the NIFC said extreme fire conditions and steep terrain had kept rescue teams from reaching the wreckage. The bodies were recovered on Saturday, but the names of the deceased have not been released.
The NIFC has issued evacuations for residents in the area and imposed road closures.
Deputy incident commander Tyler Hecht said on Friday that crews took a “tactical pause” to regroup after the crash before resuming their firefighting work.
“It’s not going to change how we operate,” Hecht said. “We’re going to continue to fight fire and utilize aircraft to support our firefighters on the ground.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called wildland firefighting “among the most dangerous jobs in the world” and asked residents to keep the crew “in your prayers”.
The Utah Highway Patrol organised a procession Saturday evening to escort the remains of the “fallen heroes”.
The Widemouth 2 fire ignited from a lightning strike in Fishlake National Forest on July 27 and has since burned more than 111,000 acres (45,000 hectares), putting it on pace to become Utah’s largest wildfire this year.
Officials listed containment at 24 percent on Saturday, with extreme fire behaviour – including crowning and long-range spotting – still threatening nearby communities.
This is Utah’s second fatal wildfire incident this summer. Three firefighters died in June while battling the Knowles and Gore fires near the Colorado border. A fourth firefighter later died from injuries sustained in the incident.
Brittany Apgar (from left), Maggie Foxx and Mo’ne Davis, of the Los Angeles Queens, joke around in the dugout prior to the start of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Three hours before game time, hundreds of fans swarmed the construction-lined, rain-soaked parking lot of Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium. Some lived down the road; most hailed from across the country, and some had come from as far as away as South Korea and Australia.
Carol and Mike Studer, the grandparents of the New York Heights’ first baseman London Studer, worried the weather would postpone London’s start against the Los Angeles Queens and they’d miss their flight the next morning. One hour later, security parted the gates.
“Am I the very first inside?” yelled a teenage girl holding a baseball mitt as she rushed through a balloon-adorned entrance to be greeted by a custom bobblehead of Queens outfielder Mo’ne Davis.
Staff quietly hurried to tape falling signage to the walls, troubleshoot the jumbotron and cook burgers and hot dogs as rain seeped through the grated ceilings of the exterior walkways. Fans, meanwhile, made a beeline for the merch booth; within hours, sales were capped at two items per fan to accommodate demand. Underneath translucent ponchos, fans donned hats, sweatshirts and T-shirts in support of the league’s four teams: the Queens, the Heights, the Boston Hunters and the San Francisco Firebells. Team loyalty was largely arbitrary, though; most said they were simply happy to support the athletes and to be present to witness the league’s inaugural game.
Players with the Boston Hunters and the San Francisco Firebells assist the grounds crew in rolling up the infield tarp prior to the start of the WPBL’s inaugural game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Sabrina Robinson, the Boston Hunters’ first baseman, fixes her hair in her hotel room before going out with her fellow players in the Women’s Pro Baseball League on Thursday, July 30.
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Robinson (center) fist bumps her teammates at the conclusion of a preseason scrimmage prior to the WPBL’s opening weekend on Thursday, July 30, in Springfield, Ill.
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The San Francisco Firebells get in some batting practice at the University of Illinois, Springfield’s training field before the WPBL’s inaugural weekend on Thursday, July 30.
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San Francisco Firebells coach Matt Williams (from left), second baseman Amanda Gianelloni, catcher Samantha Gutierrez and left fielder Skylar Kaplan in the dugout prior to their game on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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Fans from Delaware drove 1,700 miles to see Mo’ne Davis play in the WPBL’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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WPBL teams’ captains and the league’s commissioner, Justine Siegal, pass a torch to youth representatives of Baseball For All, a gender equity initiative to support girls in baseball, in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Enter the players. The Hunters and Firebells, who would play the following day, wandered the grounds in full uniform. Many were greeted with hugs by their parents and siblings, who’d traveled from across the U.S. and from 11 different countries to witness their daughters and sisters play professionally for the first time. Girls and boys blocked the players’ paths to ask for autographs, beaming at their parents as they showed off their newly signed T-shirts, mitts and baseballs.
The weekend marked the start of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s inaugural season. Its four host cities — Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York — were chosen for their history of sports loyalty and market size, yet the opening season will run for six weeks in the geographically central location of Springfield, Ill.
A stray ball lands near Springfield’s corn fields during preseason practice on Thursday, July 30.
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Rebecca Buchanan, of Springfield, Ill., dons a custom eye patch at a WPBL game at Robin Roberts Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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New York Heights players and fans prior to the start of the WPBL’s inaugural game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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A concessions stand worker at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium awaits her first customers on WPBL’s opening day.
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Maybelle the Mascot, designed in honor of veteran baseball player Maybelle Blair, entertains the crowd between innings of the WPBL’s opening game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Kelsie Whitmore (right), a pitcher for the San Francisco Firebells and the league’s No. 1 draft pick, guides veteran baseball player Maybelle Blair, 99, off the field after the first pitch ceremony on the WPBL’s opening day.
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Maybelle Blair, a veteran of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a professional women’s baseball league that was founded in 1943 and ran for 12 seasons, grips a baseball prior to throwing out the first pitch at the WPBL’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Fans behind home plate during opening day ceremonies on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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The WPBL is the fifth professional women’s baseball league in U.S. history, but Queens’ third baseman Ashton Lansdell says, “We hope it’s the fifth and the last.”
Many of those signed to the WPBL began playing as young as 4 years old, and for many, their baseball trajectories stalled as they came of age and were told they were not allowed to compete alongside boys. But many of the players said the hurdle only fueled their determination to pursue the sport through other avenues.
Baseball For All, a nonprofit founded by WPBL Commissioner Justine Siegal, has supported young women in finding opportunities for organized play in their communities, schools and universities. Many compete in annual competitions, including the Women’s Baseball World Cup, and have had stints in regional and seasonal men’s leagues. A select few, including Lansdell, Firebells pitcher Kelsie Whitmore and Heights catcher Denae Benites, have even found success in the viral Banana Ball league playing for teams like the Savannah Bananas.
Most players, though, are juggling university studies or moonlight as bartenders, firefighters and architects to support their athletic dreams.
While opportunities for women’s baseball have grown in recent years, this is the first time that these women will have a chance to compete and play together for an extended period of time. “I’ve been practicing so long on my own,” said Boston’s first baseman, Sabrina Robinson, during preseason training. “It’s so different finally playing with other [professionals] in the same place now.”
Sabrina Robinson, first basemen for the Boston Hunters, dances between innings to rile up the crowd during her team’s first game in the Women’s Pro Baseball League on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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A fan’s rain-soaked scorecard on the WPBL’s opening day.
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A young fan waves his shirt in the stands at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium on the WPBL’s opening weekend.
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One of the LA Queens’ players signs autographs for fans in the crowd during the game between the San Francisco Firebells and the Boston Hunters on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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The first game of the Women’s Professional Baseball League, hosted at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium. The 5,200-seat stadium sold out for opening day.
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A young fan dons a Rockford Peaches uniform — a nod to one of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s teams that inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own — at opening day on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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As the rain subsided, the grounds crew scrambled to prepare the field. Players stepped in to help roll up the tarp covering the field as the sold-out crowd settled into damp seats.
Meanwhile, on the third base line, 3-year-old Lenore Wooten took in the view of the field. “She’ll never know this was never not a thing,” said her mother, Jess.
Jaclyn Licht is a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Find more of her work on her website, JaclynLicht.com, or on Instagram, at @shwaclyn.
The remains of 56 people were found improperly stored and decomposing on Thursday at a Chicago funeral home run by a couple who previously operated a crematory that was similarly shut down because of mishandled remains, authorities said.
Illinois state officials, meanwhile, suspended the license of one of the funeral home’s directors, alleging bodies were being kept in an unrefrigerated area in “deplorable conditions”.
The discovery came months after neighborhood residents began noticing a “stench” emanating from the funeral home, which led some to complain to the city.
The Cook county medical examiner’s office said it was notified by state and local officials that bodies were being stored improperly at South Chicago Chapel, and investigators and forensic pathologists were dispatched Thursday. The remains were in various states of decomposition, officials said.
“Staff is assessing the conditions of the remains, searching for documentation regarding identification of the decedents as well as death certificates. This process could take several days to ensure proper disposition,” the medical examiner’s office said in a statement, adding that family notifications will be made following the identifications.
Police said on Friday that their preliminary statement on the case incorrectly said that fire department officials declared the scene a hazardous materials incident.
No arrests have been announced, but city police said detectives are investigating. Messages for the funeral home were left by phone and through its website on Friday.
Later Friday, a small number of residents and people seeking information about their deceased loved ones gathered in front of the brick-walled funeral home, which is on a South Chicago street lined with trees, homes and businesses.
Latasha Johnson, 55, said her mother’s funeral was held at South Chicago Chapel on Thursday before authorities arrived and she later heard of their gruesome discovery. She said authorities told her that her mother’s body would have to undergo an autopsy and she would have to identify the remains in a day or two.
“I’m discombobulated,” she said. “My heart is broken.”
Blaise Von Bruchhaeuser, who described herself as a community advocate for the neighborhood, said it was upsetting that complaints about a terrible odor had been made for months before the decomposing bodies were found.
State business records show that funeral director Johanna Morgan incorporated South Chicago Chapel in 2022 and her funeral director’s license was temporarily suspended on Wednesday.
The state department of financial and professional regulation said the license suspension was due to “a finding that respondent’s continued practice is a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare due to respondent allowing multiple decedents to be kept in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies”.
The state business records also list Clark Morgan, who state officials say is Johanna Morgan’s husband, as the funeral home’s president. The department of financial and professional regulation said Clark Morgan’s funeral director license was revoked in 2024 for practicing with an expired license and “unprofessional conduct” that it did not specify.
Funeral home owners also ran crematory that was shut down by the state
State comptroller Susana Mendoza said Friday that Johanna and Clark Morgan previously ran a crematory in Chicago Heights, south of Chicago, which had its license revoked last year after authorities discovered improperly stored bodies and hundreds of cremated remains that had never been returned to their families.
“Horrified. Again,” Mendoza said in a statement. “The discovery of decomposing remains waiting to be laid to rest this week at a South Side funeral home is heartbreaking and an abomination. These are people – someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, child or friend, and they deserve better.”
Both Johanna and Clark Morgan are listed in Cook county court records as defendants in connection with lawsuits involving Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, south of Chicago.
Messages were left on Friday at phone listings for the Clarks and an attorney listed in records as their business agent. Public records indicate the Clarks live in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park.
The case is the latest in a series of incidents involving mishandled remains over the past three years.
Last month, police arrested two men in Pueblo, Colorado, for allegedly mishandling at least two dozen decomposing bodies and other remains found behind a hidden door in a funeral home.
That followed the discovery of 18 bodies in various stages of decomposition at a funeral home in Georgia in 2024. In 2023, nearly 200 decomposing bodies were found in a building in Colorado, and another 31 decomposing bodies were discovered at an Indiana funeral home.
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