Senate Democrats Want Marshals To Step Up Protection of Federal Judges
Threats are on the rise, the lawmakers say
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking the US Marshals Service to do more to protect federal judges and their families from potential violence.
All of the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats sent a letter on Friday warning the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) about the elevated threat environment for federal judges, Supreme Court justices, and their families amid an uptick in threats against the judiciary.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the agency which handles the nonjudicial work to run federal courts, announced the Judicial Security and Independence Task Force to respond to the growing number of threats to the federal judiciary, the judiciary’s latest effort to protect its judges against violence and intimidation.
The senators’ letter urged the Marshals to investigate the sources of these threats and determine whether they violate federal law. The senators also asked whether the Marshals have sufficient resources to protect judges and their families and whether recent cuts to Justice Department funding and personnel have hindered the Marshals’ ability to conduct the necessary investigations.
“The USMS’s Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report noted an increase in ‘the need for protective services’ and ‘the number and intensity of concerning and potentially threatening electronic communications related to’ judges and other persons involved in the judicial process. Since then, federal judges at all levels of the judiciary and appointed by presidents of both parties have expressed concern for their and their colleagues’ safety as a result of this threat environment. The level of these threats was sufficient to spur the federal judiciary to establish a Judicial Security and Independence Task Force,” the senators wrote.
The senators requested a briefing from the Marshals Service and answers to several relevant questions.
Federal judges, Supreme Court justices, and their family members have faced relentless attacks, especially on social media, which have escalated recently. A Supreme Court justice was the target of an assassination attempt, another justice’s family member received bomb threats at her residence, a federal judge’s child was threatened, and several federal judges have had deliveries anonymously sent to their residences in an apparent warning that people know their address, the Judiciary Democrats noted.
A PDF of the text of the letter is available here.
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