Judge Describes ‘Alarming’ Pizza Delivery as Threats Increase

Judge J. Michelle Childs of the Washington appeals court said she received an unsolicited Domino’s pizza delivered to her home, as Donald Trump and his allies have publicly targeted federal judges who have ruled against the administration’s actions.

Childs, of the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, recounted receiving the pizza while home on a Saturday night with her husband, an experience she described as “alarming” while speaking on a panel of judges on a National Constitution Center podcast released Thursday.

The judge, who is also president of the Federal Judges Association, said she mentioned the incident at a meeting with federal judges later that week. A few weeks after that, she said judges learned from the Marshals Service, the agency that protects federal judges, that others had received pizzas too.

“It’s very alarming to think that all we’re doing is our job, and we have to fear,” Childs said. “We should not have to fear that. We don’t want judges worried about the decisions that they’ll make in any particular case. It’s not fair to the litigants, it’s not fair to the system.”

Childs, a Black woman, also compared this climate for judges to the Civil Rights era, “when judges have had bombs at their homes, when they’ve had crosses burned at their homes, for very difficult decisions that they’ve had to make.”

“We shall get through this moment. We just need to be empowered and emboldened to just stay the course and do our job. The republic is safe as long as the court doors remain open,” Childs said.

Judge Stephen R. Bough, of the Kansas City federal trial court, said on the podcast that Childs wasn’t the first judge to get a pizza, and Supreme Court justices have also received them.

Childs, who was appointed to the D.C. Circuit by President Joe Biden, was part of the appeals court panel that rejected Trump’s claims last year that he should be immune from criminal prosecution.

The judges’ remarks come as Trump and other conservative allies, including billionaire Elon Musk, have amplified verbal attacks on federal judges hearing challenges to Trump’s actions. They’ve taken particular aim at Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg of the Washington federal trial court, who is hearing the challenge to the administration’s decision to send alleged Venezuelan gang members to a Salvadoran prison without any hearings.

House Republicans have also filed impeachment resolutions against multiple judges, including Boasberg, who’ve ruled against the administration.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in March on the Senate floor that the public criticism “has resulted in increased threats to the lives of judges and their families.”

Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, another judge on the panel, said the impeachment effort is “one of the biggest threats” to judges.

“We recognize that you can send sticks and stones our way, but I think the threat to impeach is really an effort too far,” she said.