Federal judges said the rise in threats targeting their families has taken a noticeable toll on the judiciary.
The threats haven’t intimated judges out of following the law, US Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, who sits on the Eleventh Circuit, said during a panel on judicial security Friday at the annual convention of the American Constitution Society.
But, she said, threats targeting judges’ families, friends and clerks are eroding confidence in the judicial system, both inside and outside of the profession.
“If the real goal is a long-term strategy to erode the trust and the integrity of the judicial system by discouraging people from entering into this particular part of our profession, the answer unfortunately is it’s getting close to doing just that,” Abudu said.
The US Marshals Service recorded 564 threats to federal judges in 2025, according to US District Judge Beth Bloom, an Obama appointee to the Southern District of Florida. Already this year, she said, there have been more than 340.
She pointed to US District Judge John C. Coughenour, a Reagan appointee whose home was swatted last year after he blocked enforcement of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. He was targeted a day later by a bomb threat.
Hundreds of pizzas were also sent to the homes of judges and members of their families last year in a signal the senders knew where they lived. Many of the pizzas were sent under the name of Daniel Anderl, the son of US District Judge Esther Salas who was shot and killed in 2020 as part of an assassination plot against his mother.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said last year members of her family had received similar pizza orders. Her home was the target last month of an attempted swatting call.
Bloom said in her 32 years on the bench — including two decades as a state judge — she’s never seen the tone and frequency of violent threats judges now receive.
“Now it’s not just the judges, it’s their families,” she said.
The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, enacted in 2022, allows federal judges to redact personal information on government websites and bars commercial data collectors from selling or providing it.
US Circuit Judge Embry Kidd, who also sits on the Eleventh Circuit, said Friday that law was a good step, but he called on Congress to properly fund judicial security.
Security for federal judges is largely provided by the US Marshals Service, which earlier this year requested an additional $34 million in funding to keep up with the increased need for protective details for government officials.