I hope this OP doesn’t get me a visit from the men in black tonight. I am just curious.
Let’s say that you are a lone gunman and want to cause as much governmental damage as possible by killing a person or two with the most ease possible. All modern presidents have had assassination attempts against them and they don’t tend to work well. The SS stops most of them before they even start.
Senators are powerful but there are 100 of them and the loss of a couple wouldn’t mean all that much. Representatives much less so.
That leaves the Supreme Court. There are only 9 of them and they have a whole lot of power and a new nominee could be very significant if Obama wins. Let’s say I set my sights on any of them especially Chief Justice Roberts, how much protection would he have at his most vulnerable moment?
The Supreme Court has it’s own police department. They are charged with protecting the justices (as well as the building itself). I haven’t found anything yet that says if that is 24 hour protection or just while the justices are on the court grounds.
This is the list from the Secret Service website of whom they are charged to protect;
The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect
The immediate families of the above individuals
Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
Children of former presidents until age 16
Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election
Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
The only way it would include the justices is if there is an executive order stating the justices are to be covered by the SS.
The security of all federal courthouses and judges is the responsibility of the U.S. Marshals Service, although Secret Service protection may be extended to a justice or justices based on specific circumstances by Presidential order.
One of the oddest SCOTUS cases of all time was In re Neagle, decided in 1890.
Owing to some unpopular rulings, Justice Stephen Field was cordially hated in his “native” California. (Like many another Californian, he was not born there but went there young and made a career there, being one of the first Californians named to a major Federal office, by Lincoln in 1863.
On a trip to California, Field was allegedly shot at in an apparent assassination attempt by Judge David S. Terry of the California State Supreme Court. Terry was shot by U.S. Marshall David Neagle in an effort to defend Field, and was arrested for murder by California officials. SCOTUS quite understandably reversed Neagle’s conviction.
The oldest law enforcement agency in the country protects the US Supreme Court Justices when they are outside the court complex. The US Supreme Court police is charged with the protection of the grounds, court room and the justices while they are inside. But the Marshals service protects Federal Magistrates, District Judges, Appellete Judges and Supreme Court Police. They also protect US Attorneys, Assistant US Attorneys and the Deputy Attorney General. This is accroding to the US Marshals offical website.
They don’t have 24 hour a day protection, just the same as congressmen and women don’t have 24 hour a day protection from any federal security force (absent a specific or known threat).
