# Should US Supreme Court justices get top-notch security and protection?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 23, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574 "2012-03-23T03:12:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/21 "2012-03-26T05:49:17Z")
> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> I have been pondering this for a day or two now, and can’t figure out what you are talking about. That link is to biographies of the justices. What is shocking about that? There are publicly available biographies of just about everyone who is anyone in government. The [Navy](http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/bio_list.asp) has bios on its top civilian leaders and every admiral, and there’s like 200 of them.
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> Thank god someone else said something, I thought it was just me.
Fair nuff, but I can’t help but think that it could lead to their home addresses; if I was a security person, I would worry.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/22 "2012-03-26T12:51:10Z")
> [@chacoguy](#):
>
> Fair nuff, but I can’t help but think that it could lead to their home addresses; if I was a security person, I would worry.
Don’t they use any type of private security at all? Can I walk up to Antonin Scalia’s house, ring the doorbell, and Nino will answer it in his boxers\*, holding a cup of coffee?
\*Sorry for the mental image this early. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/23 "2012-03-26T14:37:59Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> This. Any Supreme Court Justice could walk into the local Denny’s without a head being turned. They don’t have that superstar quality outside of legal circles. And even if a lawyer was eating there at the time, the Justice could use the old “I get that all of the time” line.
When I was living in Ottawa, I often saw Justice McIntyre of the Supreme Court of Canada walking to work, down Wellington Street in front of the Parliament Buildings. I don’t think anyone would notice, unless you happened to know who he was. Just looked like some old duffer out for a walk.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/24 "2012-03-26T15:47:53Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> Don’t they use any type of private security at all? Can I walk up to Antonin Scalia’s house, ring the doorbell, and Nino will answer it in his boxers\*, holding a cup of coffee?
>
> \*Sorry for the mental image this early. 🙂
Out of curiosity, I just looked up Scalia on LexisNexis. Weirdly, there are two Virginia phone bills in that name in Virginia, but neither of them goes with an address that in his, his wife’s, or his children’s names. His voter registration has also apparently been redacted (or possibly he’s not registered to vote); I found two Antonino Scalias born in Jersey in 1936 but both are Democrats. 😃
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/25 "2012-03-26T15:49:03Z")
> [@jtgain](#):
>
> Don’t they use any type of private security at all? Can I walk up to Antonin Scalia’s house, ring the doorbell, and Nino will answer it in his boxers\*, holding a cup of coffee?
And making a traditional Italian hand gesture with his other hand.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/26 "2012-03-26T16:01:38Z")
OK, so beefed-up security isn’t needed because the Supreme Court justices don’t, in practice, get many or any assassination attempts, but I’m still not clear why that should be so. **KarlGauss** does seem to have a point, that they’d be logical targets for political extremists of one stripe or another. Is it just that the kind of person extreme enough to attempt assassinations in the first place isn’t likely to be rational enough to choose appropriate targets?
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/27 "2012-03-26T18:42:36Z")
Since the SC decides their own schedule and cases, if someone were to make an overtly political move such as killing one or more of the members before a case, couldn’t the SC just table their session until a new member was confirmed?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/28 "2012-03-26T21:58:06Z")
Somewhere around here is my copy of _Secret Service Chief_, the memoir or U.E. Baughman, who was head of the Service from 1948-61. I believe he mentions a Justice complaining that somebody was going through his garbage and authorized some agents to look into it.
He also mentions addressing some of the expressed concerns of Secretary of Defence James Forrestal, who said he was being followed. Baughman learned later that Forrestal was sliding into severe mental illness.
This is from memory - I’ll confirm if I find the book.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/29 "2012-03-26T22:36:11Z")
I’m pretty sure that the Justices to get some security personal. [Here’s](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/92439-supreme-court-wants-more-money-for-security) an article about Thomas asking for more money for “threat assesment” and security personal for the SCOTUS, and according to the US Marshal’s service in 2011 they:
> [@](#):
>
> Coordinated and provided personnel and additional security resources for 365 **protective details (outside of courthouses) to U.S. Supreme Court Justices**, U.S Appellate Court, District Court and federal Magistrate Judges, and/or other members of the judicial system.
They don’t seem to have the same 24-7 protection the Prez has, but they do seem to get some form of access to security personal even when they aren’t in the actual Court building.
I couldn’t find much more detail, presumably the Marshals don’t advertise the specifics of whatever security measures they may have.
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### Author:  [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/30 "2012-03-26T23:34:06Z")
If they have gaps in their security, then they could hire their own. IIRC, a justice makes a quarter of a million in salary alone. Not a vast sum, but enough to hire some private security. If not, I’d be for giving them a raise and letting them decide themselves if they want more security, or if they want to spend the extra money on hookers and blow.
-XT
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-us-supreme-court-justices-get-top-notch-security-and-protection/616574/31 "2012-03-26T23:36:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure that the Justices to get some security personal.
_Personnel_. A security personal is presumably what you put in a newspaper when you want to hire a guard with benefits.
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