Justices urge Congress for more protection
WASHINGTON (AP) – Two Supreme Court justices urged Congress on Tuesday to provide more money to boost security at their building, saying recent attacks on federal judges underscore the need. In a two-hour appearance before a House Appropriations panel, Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas also fielded questions about the court’s recent decision striking down the death penalty for juvenile killers and the health of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer.
Kennedy reported Rehnquist was in “good spirits” and “participating actively in the work of the court.”
But in response to a question, he also discussed the possibility the court will have its first vacancy in more than a decade.
“It’s a considerable amount of anxiety when there’s a vacancy: Will we get along? Will they be horrified at the work pace needed to keep up?” Kennedy said. “The court can operate with less than nine, but this is worrisome because if we have 4-4 opinions it doesn’t give the system any guidance.”
Rehnquist, diagnosed in October, returned to the bench last month. He has not indicated whether he plans to step down when the current session ends in June.
Kennedy and Thomas submitted a $60.7 million budget request to Congress, including $639,000 to create 11 new police positions for increased patrols around the court. One officer would be assigned to investigate threats made against the nine justices.
The request follows the murder in February of a federal judge’s family in Chicago, courtroom shooting deaths in Atlanta in March and death threats against judges involved in the Terri Schiavo feeding tube case.
The Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal judiciary’s policy-making board, asked Congress for $12 million to install home security systems for federal judges. But it has not been decided whether that request will cover the nine justices of the Supreme Court, which has a separate budget.
Thomas told the House panel that money for the high court is needed for training in case of attempted biological and chemical attacks.
He said threats are routinely made against justices’ lives, often by mail, because of the highly charged nature of their jobs.
“One thing that astounded me when I joined the court 13 years ago was how inadequate security was,” Thomas said. “Passions get pretty high. I think we’ve been on borrowed time for a long time.”
At one point during the hearing, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., asked Kennedy to explain the court’s 5-4 ruling last month overturning the juvenile death penalty partly because of international sentiment against it. Kennedy wrote the opinion; Thomas dissented.
“Lately we’ve had rulings that seem to go beyond the rule of law,” Tiahrt said, repeating a criticism frequently made by Justice Antonin Scalia, also a dissenter in that opinion. “We want to make sure we have separation of powers, but also make sure the Constitution is upheld.”
Kennedy responded that the court has been making controversial decisions for 200 years. The Constitution’s text “must be elaborated over time,” Kennedy said.
Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., took a veiled shot at Republicans who have called for impeaching judges they see as activist. He said he doesn’t always agree with the Supreme Court, “but it doesn’t mean we have to argue and yell and in some cases call for your impeachment.”
Justices each spring appear before the House panel to submit the court’s annual budget, a task that has fallen in recent years on Kennedy and Thomas.
When a House member jokingly asked how the two were picked for the assignment, Kennedy responded with a smile, “On merit.”
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