Justice Barrett targeted in “swatting” incident

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the target of a “swatting” incident – a false call reporting gunshots intended to provoke a response from law enforcement officials – on Wednesday night, according to a report on social media. Andrew Leyden, a freelance photographer who posts frequently on X as @PenguinSix, indicated on Thursday morning that police had responded to a call at Barrett’s home on Wednesday night, “but quickly realized it was a swatting call” and left “after meeting with her security detail.”

Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., confirmed the incident in a statement to the National Review.

Leyden’s post on X included audio from the police department, which he said had been redacted under media guidelines intended to reduce copycat incidents. The audio noted that the address had “24-hour security coverage for a high-priority resident of the county.” An officer then reported that he had “made contact with security that’s on scene” at the house and the security detail hadn’t “heard anything.”

The justices have had around-the-clock security since at least 2022, when the leak of the court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which would overturn the constitutional right to an abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade, led to protests outside several of the conservative justices’ homes, including Barrett’s. In June of that year, a California man was arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home in Maryland.

Last year, Barrett’s sister, who lives in South Carolina, was the target of a bomb threat. As CNN reported, an email sent to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office indicated that a pipe bomb had been placed in her mailbox, but no bomb was found there.