Judges Detail Panic Buttons, Security Amid Threat Surge

Federal judges have varied their commutes, hired private security and fortified their homes with panic buttons amid a surge of threats and harassment that has left many anxious about their safety, according to two new studies.

In a striking admission, one judge acknowledged considering an alternative ruling to avoid vitriol that could endanger the judge's family. That judge, like several others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity, recalling being gripped by fear and agonizing for nearly an hour before ultimately sticking with the decision the law required.

The studies follow a documented spike in threats. "Security incidents of significant concern" rose 57% in the year ending September 2025 and were on pace to climb again this year, according to a March report from the agency that administers the U.S. court system.

The research, conducted by legal scholars at New York University and the University of California, Berkeley, along with the Brennan Center for Justice, draws on detailed interviews with dozens of judges. "We are in a different era," said Amrit Singh, director of the Rule of Law Lab at NYU and lead author of one study. "The volume, intensity, character and modalities of the threats that we are witnessing today are new."

Judges described feeling overwhelmed, losing sleep, and installing security cameras and panic buttons, with many worried about their families. In the second study, one judge said home floor plans had been leaked and described building a safe room after receiving more than 700 threatening phone calls following an immigration ruling in a Trump administration case.

"Long term, there really is a danger to the rule of law from these threats," said Gowri Ramachandran of the Brennan Center, a co-author of that report.

The NYU-Berkeley study interviewed 32 active district and appellate judges, evenly split between Democratic and Republican nominees, plus two magistrate judges. The Brennan Center interviewed 35 sitting and retired federal judges, including eight nominated by Republican presidents. Both reports call for stronger funding for judicial security and better protection of judges' personal information, with the NYU-Berkeley study also urging more prosecutions of those who make threats.

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, who took part in both studies, said repeated attacks on judges by President Trump and his administration have left her more worried about judicial safety than she was after her son, Daniel Anderl, was shot and killed in 2020 by a litigant posing as a deliveryman — an attack that also wounded her husband. Since then, scores of judges have received unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homes, sometimes in Anderl's name. Salas said the judiciary is "under assault."