Elena Kagan
Judge / Justice
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2010
When political figures of any stripe are trying to intimidate judges and justices to do things that they like, rather than the things that they don’t, that’s where we really have crossed the line.
Intimidation is a different thing entirely. And when political figures of any stripe are trying to intimidate judges and justices to do things that they like rather than the things that they don't, that's where we really have crossed the…
They're dangerous in terms of individual justices' security and they're not appropriate in the way to treat a coordinate branch of government.
For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize.
I will say that that’s an extremely difficult question for a pretty obvious reason, I think, which is that I don’t think that you would want an enforcement system that was controlled by the executive branch or by the legislature.
The Supreme Court police expect a smaller but still very substantial 38% annual increase in threats this year, which follows a 25% increase last year.
Right now visitors walk into the court and that’s where they are checked. That’s where they are sent through the magnetometer and checked for weapons and so forth.
I don’t think that you would want an enforcement system that was controlled by the executive branch or by the legislature.