{"id":145220,"date":"2026-03-02T17:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/02\/federal-judges-threatened-for-doing-their-jobs-speak-up\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:13:13","slug":"federal-judges-threatened-for-doing-their-jobs-speak-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/02\/federal-judges-threatened-for-doing-their-jobs-speak-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judges Threatened For Doing Their Jobs Speak Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right now is a tough time to be a federal judge. While the judiciary has long been (naively) thought of as the neutral branch, judges with steadfast commitment to upholding the Constitution have been facing serious consequences. By consequences I don\u2019t mean being \u201cforced\u201d to flee Morton\u2019s Steakhouse because protestors<\/a> were pissed at you for overturning Roe v. Wade<\/em> \u2014 the court basically blessed that with the way they handled Madsen v. Women\u2019s Health Center<\/em>. I mean actual threats to life and liberty like the would be assassin that tried to kill Kavanaugh<\/a>. Federal judges banned together to speak out against the uptick in violent crime and threats befalling judges for simply doing their jobs. CBS News<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Judge John Coughenour \u2013 appointed by Ronald Reagan\u2026blocked President Trump\u2019s bid to end birthright citizenship. He wasn\u2019t prepared for what happened next.<\/p>\n

Judge John Coughenour: My wife and I are at home. And the doorbell rings. And I go to the door. And there\u2019s, I think, five sheriff\u2019s deputies there with long rifles \u2013<\/p>\n

Bill Whitaker: And they show up with guns drawn?<\/p>\n

Judge John Coughenour: Oh yeah. Yes, yes. Long guns, very intimidating guns. And they said to me, \u201cSir, could we see your wife?\u201d And I said, \u201cwhatever for?\u201d And they said, well, sir, we\u2019ve had a report that you\u2019ve murdered your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a cruel hoax. The next day? A bomb threat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It should be plainly obvious that the President is not empowered to willy nilly invalidate our Supreme document the moment it inconveniences their policy plans. That\u2019s kind of the point of checks and balances \u2014 if the Executive or the Legislative branches go too far, the judiciary is supposed to point at the Constitution and reel them back in. You don\u2019t reward that behavior by swatting judges.<\/p>\n

Judge Coughenour wasn\u2019t the only judge to get this treatment. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was similarly swatted after she oversaw Trump\u2019s federal election interference case<\/a>. And when dialing 911 doesn\u2019t do the trick, these cowards have taken to calling pizzerias. When D.C. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs got a cheese pizza delivered to her home it wasn\u2019t meant to make deciding dinner easier that night. It was a threat \u2014 the pizza was delivered with the name Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Anderl was shot dead by someone who knew the judge\u2019s address<\/a>. These cheesy threats are way more credible than Comey\u2019s sea shell art<\/a>, yet the White House has done little to address the uptick in outrage directed at judges. The \u201cHey, don\u2019t attack these crazy bastards<\/a>\u201d response felt a lot more like stand back and stand by<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judges usually keep their thoughts to themselves rather than risk muddying themselves with politics and appearing impartial. The fact that this many judges were willing to speak out against how unsafe their workplace has become is a sign on how bad things are going. <\/p>\n

Federal Judges Who\u2019ve Ruled Against Trump Administration Denounce Threats Against Themselves, Their Families<\/a> [CBS News]<\/p>\n

\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Federal Judges Threatened For Doing Their Jobs Speak Up<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right now is a tough time to be a federal judge. While the judiciary has long been (naively) thought of as the neutral branch, judges with steadfast commitment to upholding the Constitution have been facing serious consequences. By consequences I don\u2019t mean being \u201cforced\u201d to flee Morton\u2019s Steakhouse because protestors<\/a> were pissed at you for overturning Roe v. Wade<\/em> \u2014 the court basically blessed that with the way they handled Madsen v. Women\u2019s Health Center<\/em>. I mean actual threats to life and liberty like the would be assassin that tried to kill Kavanaugh<\/a>. Federal judges banned together to speak out against the uptick in violent crime and threats befalling judges for simply doing their jobs. CBS News<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Judge John Coughenour \u2013 appointed by Ronald Reagan\u2026blocked President Trump\u2019s bid to end birthright citizenship. He wasn\u2019t prepared for what happened next.<\/p>\n

Judge John Coughenour: My wife and I are at home. And the doorbell rings. And I go to the door. And there\u2019s, I think, five sheriff\u2019s deputies there with long rifles \u2013<\/p>\n

Bill Whitaker: And they show up with guns drawn?<\/p>\n

Judge John Coughenour: Oh yeah. Yes, yes. Long guns, very intimidating guns. And they said to me, \u201cSir, could we see your wife?\u201d And I said, \u201cwhatever for?\u201d And they said, well, sir, we\u2019ve had a report that you\u2019ve murdered your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a cruel hoax. The next day? A bomb threat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It should be plainly obvious that the President is not empowered to willy nilly invalidate our Supreme document the moment it inconveniences their policy plans. That\u2019s kind of the point of checks and balances \u2014 if the Executive or the Legislative branches go too far, the judiciary is supposed to point at the Constitution and reel them back in. You don\u2019t reward that behavior by swatting judges.<\/p>\n

Judge Coughenour wasn\u2019t the only judge to get this treatment. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was similarly swatted after she oversaw Trump\u2019s federal election interference case<\/a>. And when dialing 911 doesn\u2019t do the trick, these cowards have taken to calling pizzerias. When D.C. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs got a cheese pizza delivered to her home it wasn\u2019t meant to make deciding dinner easier that night. It was a threat \u2014 the pizza was delivered with the name Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Anderl was shot dead by someone who knew the judge\u2019s address<\/a>. These cheesy threats are way more credible than Comey\u2019s sea shell art<\/a>, yet the White House has done little to address the uptick in outrage directed at judges. The \u201cHey, don\u2019t attack these crazy bastards<\/a>\u201d response felt a lot more like stand back and stand by<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judges usually keep their thoughts to themselves rather than risk muddying themselves with politics and appearing impartial. The fact that this many judges were willing to speak out against how unsafe their workplace has become is a sign on how bad things are going. <\/p>\n

Federal Judges Who\u2019ve Ruled Against Trump Administration Denounce Threats Against Themselves, Their Families<\/a> [CBS News]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Federal Judges Threatened For Doing Their Jobs Speak Up<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right now is a tough time to be a federal judge. While the judiciary has long been (naively) thought of as the neutral branch, judges with steadfast commitment to upholding the Constitution have been facing serious consequences. By consequences I don\u2019t mean being \u201cforced\u201d to flee Morton\u2019s Steakhouse because protestors were pissed at you for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chris-Williams-2025-9f9601.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}