Kagan, Barrett to Testify to House on Supreme Court Budget

Barrett sided with the majority in a separate case giving Trump authority to fire Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a decision that expanded presidential power over independent agencies. Kagan dissented.

Security concerns have escalated since the 2019 hearing. In his opening statement that year, Alito thanked the subcommittee for additional security funding, saying the court was "carefully and deliberately putting those new funds to work based on a top-to-bottom review of our current practices."

In May 2022, security was tightened after the leak of a draft opinion Alito wrote that overturned Roe v. Wade. Protests followed outside the homes of Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A month later, a 26-year-old California man armed with a handgun, knife, pepper spray, and burglary tools was arrested outside Kavanaugh's home after telling police he had traveled there to kill the justice. The man, Nicholas Roske, pleaded guilty in April 2025 to attempted murder and was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison.

The hearing will test whether the court's relationship with Congress has shifted since the security incidents and the string of politically charged rulings.