Judges Recount Threats After Roberts Calls Out Rising Hostility

A federal judge in Los Angeles said she started her job with “eyes wide open” that each decision issued would displease half of the people involved. What she wasn’t expecting was the “level of vitriol” and violent threats that judges said have now become a part of daily life.

Chief Judge Dolly Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California, speaking during a virtual event Thursday, read out examples of threats she’s received since joining the bench in 2010: “I know who you are, what you look like, where you work, where you live, and what you drive, so I think I’ll pay you a visit soon. What do you think will happen then? Trust me, it will be the worst day in your life.”

Another threat, which she said led to an indictment, promised to “put a bullet in your head in the middle of your kitchen.”

Gee was one of five sitting federal judges who described threats they’ve received, and called others to speak out against the problem, at a Thursday event hosted by Speak Up for Justice, which advocates for an independent judiciary and rule of law.

“Judges are traditionally cautious about speaking publicly. But this moment presents a strong case for why engagement is not only appropriate, but is necessary,” said Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, one of the event moderators.

Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this week warned that “personally directed hostility” toward judges has created a dangerous environment for members of the bench.

Sitting judges speak publicly more rarely than their retired counterparts, given judicial ethics rules that limit public speech. However, a judicial advisory opinion issued last month confirmed that judges may discuss the role of courts and related topics, including judicial security and resources.

Roberts’ remarks show that “we have more work to do, quite frankly, in taking the bit and running with it, now that the door is opened a little bit more for us to speak out, as we’re doing here today,” Judge Mark Norris of the US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee said.

Norris’ law clerk was shot in the chest and robbed by people who broke into his residence in 2024, days after the verdict in a high-profile civil rights case.

Threats against judges have risen in recent years. The US Marshals Service, the Justice Department agency that protects judges, logged 564 threats against federal judges last fiscal year, up from 509 the year prior. The agency has recorded 241 threats so far this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

Judges have also recounted receiving unsolicited pizza deliveries, a move intended to signal the sender knows where the judge lives. Some of those pizzas have been sent in the name of Daniel Anderl, a New Jersey federal judge’s son who was killed in 2020 by a disgruntled attorney posing as a delivery driver.

Receiving threats has “become the quotidian,” said Norris, who said he has received pizzas in Anderl’s name. “It’s a daily affair now. It’s become normalized in many respects.”

Judge Michelle Williams Court of the US District Court for the Central District of California, who joined the bench in 2024 and was previously a county superior court judge, recounted receiving a threat early in her career from a person who claimed to know where her children went to school.

Judge Ana Reyes of the US District Court for the District of Columbia described threats she’s received during a court hearing last month in a case related to a Trump administration immigration policy. Reyes said during the event Thursday that she was moved to discuss this issue in court because she thought it was important to share that receiving death threats is a “matter of course now” for judges handling high-, or even mid-, profile cases.

“I put that in the record and said it in part because those threats are extraordinary,” Reyes said. “But what’s most problematic is that the extraordinary has become ordinary.”