Last week, Chief Justice Roberts called out violent threats to Supreme Court justices. As Roberts said, “Personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.” But the U.S. Supreme Court is only part of it. Judges across the country are noting the dangerous increase in the intensity of threats and violent rhetoric. Reports are that the U.S. Marshals Service has already recorded 241 threats against judges in 2026, after 564 threats in 2025 (other recent years have been high too). Harassment has extended at time to the children and families of judges. The Chief Justice’s most recent statement follows concerns set out in his 2024 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, where he sounded the alarm over “illegitimate activity” threatening the independence of judges and the rule of law, including violence, intimidation, disinformation, and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments. As he said then: “There is of course no place for violence directed at judges for doing their job. Yet, in recent years, there has been a significant uptick in identified threats at all levels of the judiciary.”
Last Thursday, an online forum was held titled The Bench Breaks Its Silence: Sitting Judges Stand Up and Speak Out About Attacks on the Judiciary, featuring a panel of federal judges from around the country. The event was hosted by Speak Up for Justice, an initiative started last year by L.A.-based attorney Paul Kiesel. Thursday’s panel included judges Beth Bloom (S.D. Florida), Ana Reyes (D.D.C.), Mark Norris (W.D. Tennessee), Dolly Gee (C.D. California) and Michelle Williams Court (C.D. California). For other recent coverage, see Ben Penn, Judges Mull ‘Extraordinary Times’ Over Threats, Trump Era, Bloomberg Law, March 12, 2026 (judges speaking at the American Bar Association’s annual white collar gathering describing escalating threats); Lawrence Hurley, More Federal Judges Warn of an Increase in Violent Threats, NBC News, March 19, 2026 (noting that judges “recounted their personal experiences of threats arising from all kinds of cases, not just those with a political tinge); Suzanne Monyak, Judges Recount Threats After Roberts Calls Out Rising Hostility, Bloomberg Law, March 19, 2026 (describing the “’level of vitriol’ and violent threats that judges said have now become a part of daily life”). Some bar associations have released statements because of the concern. See, e.g., Michelle A. Behnke, Protecting the Judiciary From Personal Attacks (Statement of ABA President), March 20, 2026; Illinois State Bar Association Statement Concerning Attacks on the Judiciary and the Erosion of Institutional Respect, Feb. 27, 2026.
Kellye Testy and I wrote an op-ed in The Hill last fall about these issues. Kellye Testy & Austen Parrish, America’s Judges Are Under Attack – Lawyers Have a Duty to Defend Them, The Hill, Sept. 14, 2025. For an earlier discussion, see Bolch Judicial Institute, Threats, Disinformation, and the Decline of Public Trust in the Judiciary, 108 Judicature 9 (2024) (“David F. Levi, president of the American Law Institute and director emeritus of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School, convened a group of judicial and legal leaders to discuss the sources of this growing crisis and to share ideas for how judges and lawyers can respond. In a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges ahead, one sentiment was shared by all: The time to act is now, and the cause is urgent.”).
