Federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration are speaking publicly about the threats they face, a rare break from judicial tradition driven by what they describe as an unprecedented wave of violence and intimidation. In a June 2026 interview with CBS News, Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee from Washington state, detailed death threats and bomb scares that followed his ruling blocking Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.
Coughenour said he received dozens, if not hundreds, of death threats. After his ruling, sheriff’s deputies arrived at his home with long rifles in response to a false report that he had murdered his wife—a cruel hoax. The next day, he received a bomb threat. Coughenour also described a wanted poster circulating among members of Congress that featured photos of several judges, stating everything except “dead or alive.”
The threats are not isolated. According to U.S. Marshals Service data, 564 threats against federal judges were recorded in fiscal year 2025, up from earlier years. In fiscal 2026 through January, 286 different judges out of approximately 2,600 active judges have been named as threatened on protective investigations. On average, federal judges faced about 44 threats per month during this period.
Judge Esther Salas, a federal district court judge in New Jersey appointed by Barack Obama, has become a leading voice against the attacks. Salas lost her son Daniel to a shooting in 2020 by a failed litigant, and she now fears that today’s political rhetoric makes such violence more likely. She told CBS News she is more concerned now than after her son’s murder, citing what she described as a coordinated campaign to dehumanize judges.
Salas has been targeted with unsolicited pizza deliveries sent to her home in the name of her murdered son, with messages stating “We know where you live. We know where your children live.” At least 20 pizzas were sent to judges and their children across the country in similar intimidation campaigns. “They’re weaponizing my baby boy. They’re weaponizing Daniel’s name to inflict fear on judges,” Salas said.
Judge John Jones, a retired federal judge from Pennsylvania appointed by George W. Bush, formed a bipartisan group of 55 retired judges to lobby the White House to stop what they call the demonization of judges. Jones told CBS News that if the current environment continues, “we’re gonna get a judge killed. It’s just that stark.”
The judges connect the threats directly to Trump’s rhetoric. When Trump lost court battles, he called judges “lunatics” and “monsters.” Coughenour, in his 44 years on the bench, said he had never encountered such hostility toward the judiciary. “I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions,” he said. “I think it’s because there are people who think that they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary.”
The Trump administration has pushed back. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the judicial rulings against the administration “a war,” accusing judges of “not following the law.” The White House statement said President Trump “understands the dangers of political violence” as a survivor of assassination attempts, and accused the judiciary of “brazen defiance” with “unlawful rulings.”
Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall, a company that removes judges’ personal data from the internet, told CBS News he has never seen as many violent threats in 14 years of work. He noted a shift in the nature of threats: “The threats used to be, ‘you ruled against me. And I wanna kill you.’ Now the kind of threats we’re seeing—there’s a whole other sphere of saying ‘I wanna influence what you do.’ It’s mob mentality.”
Judge Jones emphasized that the constitutional system depends on judges applying the law independently. “For the last 250 years in this country it’s been the judges that say this is either constitutional or it isn’t,” Coughenour said. “If nobody is going to make that decision and nobody’s gonna enforce the Constitution it becomes like the Constitution of Russia.” Jones added that while both political sides have engaged in heated rhetoric, the scale and nature of current attacks from the right have no parallel on the left.
Sources
- CBS News — Federal judges’ statements about threats, Judge Coughenour’s birthright citizenship ruling and subsequent threats, Judge Salas’s accounts of pizza deliveries and intimidation, Judge Jones’s concerns about judicial safety
- U.S. Marshals Service — Threat statistics showing 564 threats in FY2025, 286 judges threatened in FY2026 through January, monthly threat averages
