Donald Trump, flanked by attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, arrives for his criminal trial at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, NY on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Jabin Botsford/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
President Donald Trump has been at war with the judiciary branch for years, but he really saw an uptick after he lost over 60 lawsuits trying to stop his 2020 election loss. Since then, he's deployed the same process of attacking judges by name, prompting supporters to broadcast their homes and family information.
The Christian Science Monitor noted on Friday that after years of only speaking out through their rulings, judges are coming forward in an effort to appeal to the public.
The U.S. Judicial Conference, which oversees the federal judiciary, recently issued an advisory opinion clarifying that judges may speak beyond their written rulings if they choose.
Jeremy Fogel, the executive director of Berkeley Judicial Institute, wrote last year that one issue is that many of these threats remain unknown to the public. He noted that it's tempting to brush it off as merely part of a new polarized society, but urged people not to minimize it.
The concern is that the threats will work and judges will begin to consider not the law in their rulings but the safety of their family, Fogel explained.
A forum organized by Speak Up for Justice brought together four judges willing to publicly call out the violence. "Serious threats" have doubled in the years since the 2020 election.
“Judges are traditionally cautious about speaking publicly. But this moment makes a strong case for why engagement is not only appropriate, but is necessary,” said U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom, for the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Esther Salas was targeted by an irate "men's rights" activist who went to her home with a gun. Her son stepped in front of her as the man fired. Since his death, people have been sending pizzas to the home of judges using the name of her slain son. It's a way of telling the judge that they know where they live and that what happened to Judge Salas' son could happen to them.
“It’s a matter of course now that when you issue an opinion that some people don’t like, you’re going to get threats and you’re going to get death threats,” said Judge Anna Reyes.
Judge Michelle Williams Court revealed that she received threats from someone saying that they knew where she lived and where her children went to school. She never thought anything would come of it, but she did tell the school and the local law enforcement.
“One Saturday morning, I looked out the window in my living room and there were four sheriff’s cars and four people sitting in handcuffs in my driveway,” she said.
It wasn't about a specific ruling, merely general anger and political opposition.
She continued, saying that people think, “Well this person was appointed by this person or that person, and I don’t like that decision, so I’m going to do X.' That’s a very dangerous place to be because it’s very unpredictable.”
The report recalled that last month, she read some of the death threats in open court. One said, “The best way you could help America is to eat a bullet.”
Last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some of Trump's tariffs, the president lashed out at Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. He called them “a disgrace to our nation” and “an embarrassment to their families." He claimed, without proof, that they were “swayed by foreign interests.”
“The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities,” said Chief Justice John Roberts this week when speaking at Rice University. “Personally directed hostility [toward judges] is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”
It isn't merely Trump's anger toward the judiciary. CSM recalled Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who announced he was starting a task force to “unite members in exposing judicial activism, with the ultimate goal of impeaching rogue, activist judges.”
"The view of a judge as someone who avoids trouble by following faithfully the direction of those in power is a hallmark of an authoritarian society, not a democratic one," Fogel wrote in his column.