By Manny Marotta

FTC is pleased that the full $892 million request for court security we’ve long advocated for (p. 53) was included in the final legislative package passed by the House today and the Senate last week to end the shutdown.

This level of funding was initially proposed three years ago but was held up amid budget fights and seemingly unending continuing resolutions. We expect President Trump to sign the bill shortly.

FTC’s Gabe Roth said: “This security funding is a major victory for sanity, as it shows that a bipartisan group of lawmakers recognizes the growing threats facing federal judges, and they’re prepared to respond with more resources.”

This victory comes despite calls from some Trump administration officials and Republicans in Congress to investigate or impeach judges and a lack of interest in some congressional corners to give the judiciary the boost it needs. In recent years, threats against federal judges have increased, and the expanded security line item — up $142 million, or 19% over last year — will support courthouse protection, security personnel and other safeguards against violence and intimidation targeting the third branch.

The package also provides the full $135 million requested for the Supreme Court, bringing total funding for the justices to a record $163 million when combined with the $28 million allocated in the continuing resolution that ended the government shutdown in the fall.

Although we applaud the move toward increased Supreme Court security funding, as well, we’d like to emphasize the need for greater transparency in how the funds are spent. We’d like to see the new congressionally-mandated SCOTUS security funding report (p. 27), for example, be made public in light of the underwhelming, and inconclusive, post-Dobbs leak report from SCOTUS and the Chertoff Group.

Balancing security with transparency is essential to maintaining public trust. Protecting judges from threats is a necessary function of government, but we also have to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used responsibly and that this funding (and this funding) stays subject to public scrutiny.

FTC previously called on the judiciary funding bill (FSGG) to be decoupled from the Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which still needs a lot of work. Thankfully it was, which meant we were able to support it.