Judges Called to Promote Civic Education as Threats Rise

Judicial leaders are calling on judges to take a more active role in civics education, as threats against the judiciary escalate and public trust in the judiciary declines.

“My request is simple: please commit to do something concrete with regard to promoting civics, education, and civility,” Judge Robin Rosenberg, the newly tapped director of the Federal Judicial Center, said at the Sixth Circuit’s judicial conference in Memphis on Wednesday.

“I believe some of us think, that’s not my job,” Rosenberg said. However, “just as judges are responsible for ruling on motions and presiding over trials, so too we are responsible for building public trust by way of civics education,” she said.

It’s an “obligation” for judges and lawyers to speak, in order to resolve problems at the local level, added Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, who also spoke on the same panel.

Still, Judge Robert Dow, who serves as counselor to Chief Justice John Roberts, cautioned judges against speaking out too much.

“The problem from our branch is that we have a very tiny megaphone, and if we use that megaphone too often, we risk losing what I say is the long game. The long game is to preserve our independence by doing exactly what we do,” Dow said.

The judges’ remarks came during a panel focused on judicial independence and security. There were more than 400 threats against federal judges logged from October through mid-June with over three months left in the fiscal year, more than were recorded in all of fiscal 2022.

President Donald Trump and top allies have also lambasted individual judges on social media for rulings against his administration, while House Republicans have put forth impeachment resolutions against certain judges over their rulings.

Judge Richard Sullivan, who chairs the Judicial Conference’s committee focused on security, said at the panel that the judiciary has been operating under a flat budget for the last several years, which effectively amounts to budget cuts given inflation. House Republicans have proposed increasing funding for judicial security next fiscal year by more than 18%.

“We have not had money for security systems, for pretty basic stuff,” including barriers, cameras and screening equipment, Sullivan said. He said he’d like to see technology to screen for flammable liquids specifically, rather than banning all liquids over a certain amount, “but that’s really expensive.”

“We’re going to run out of money before we run out of courthouses,” he said.