Police responded Wednesday evening to a swatting call at the Virginia residence of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and quickly determined the report was fictitious, according to Fairfax County police.
A Fairfax County Police Department public information officer said officers were dispatched at approximately 9:02 p.m. through the department's non-emergency line. The justice's security detail confirmed the report was fake, and officers immediately coordinated with Supreme Court Police personnel assigned to the residence. No additional police resources were used.
Barrett was back on the bench Thursday morning with her colleagues, reading aloud summaries of two opinions she authored. She made no mention of the Wednesday night incident in her bench remarks.
The call came amid years of heightened threats against Supreme Court justices. In 2022, protests were held outside the homes of conservative justices after a draft opinion in the Dobbs case was leaked, and a California man was later arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home and charged with attempted murder.
Sen. Mike Lee condemned the episode as a direct threat, saying, "Swatting is an attempt to get an innocent person killed—in this case, a sitting Supreme Court Justice." He said, "The proper response will be putting the offender in prison for many, many years."
The incident left Barrett physically untouched and publicly unfazed, but it fit a pattern the court has spent years trying to outrun: threats aimed not at policy, but at the justices themselves. The next question is whether investigators can identify who made the call before the tactic is tried again.
