October 05th, 2025

"[T]hey sat down with me and said, 'The truth of the matter is, we can have officers around your house, which we will, but if he wants to get you, he is so highly trained, he’s going to get you,'" one state court judge

In an unwelcome nationwide trend, judges are increasingly reporting doxing, swatting, and even staged pizza deliveries meant to warn or intimidate them that their homes are known to disgruntled litigants.

The stories are harrowing, the videos disturbing, and the threats all too real.

On Thursday, four state court judges—two from Florida, one from California, and another from Colorado—appeared on a virtual panel hosted by Speak Up for Justice, the advocacy group founded by Los Angeles attorney Paul R. Kiesel. They shared chilling accounts of the intimidation they have faced simply for upholding the law—vivid reminders of the escalating dangers facing the judiciary nationwide.

These tactics recall the 2020 tragedy in New Jersey, when the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was murdered by a gunman posing as a deliveryman. Though she was not among the speakers at a recent forum, Salas has become a leading national voice on judicial safety. She continues to press for a centralized system to track threats, stressing, “This is not just an inconvenience. I just want to make sure we distinguish between offensive calls and outright threats to judges."

For state judges, the danger is compounded by a critical gap: unlike their federal counterparts, they are not afforded the same level of security detail. That disparity has fueled calls from lawmakers and advocacy groups for stronger federal monitoring, resources, and training to protect the judges who handle the vast majority of cases in America.

The panel highlighted how threats against judges—particularly women—have become more personal, more gendered, and increasingly violent.

“There's no doubt that in America, we have two guardrails. One is our court system, which we need to protect, and we have the Congress," Kiesel said, "which is also meant to be a protection of our system of justice and democracy. I hope part of the Speak Up for Justice program will let Americans know the risks that you face in doing the jobs that you're doing, the bravery you have in actually coming forward.”

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, 543 threats and “inappropriate communications” targeting federal judges have already been logged this year, surpassing all of 2024. Yet state judges, who handle 95% of the nation’s cases, are not even tracked, Keisel said.

In a March administrative order from the Supreme Court of Florida, the justices reported that "the number of verified threats against federal judges has doubled from historic patterns, and 56% of participants in a recent survey of state judges report having been threatened."

A Deepfake Threat in Florida

Dixie County Judge Jennifer J. Johnson, of Florida’s Third Judicial Circuit, recounted how years of harassment culminated in a 2023 AI-generated video depicting her violent murder with a hatchet and shotgun. Despite her repeated warnings, she said law enforcement took five months to act. Her stalker was ultimately convicted and sentenced in 2024 to 15 years in prison.

"The video is still difficult to watch," Johnson recalled. "We can't live in fear. Because of that role that I have, there are threats of violence on my family, and it just absolutely has to stop.”

Johnson said the threats have her always looking over her shoulder.

"It’s just not a way to live," Johnson said. "You quit going out in public."

For Johnson, the most painful part was the toll on her family.

“My children saw that [video] on social media,” Johnson said. “He named me, he talked about my divorce, my remarriage, my name change, my children, where I live, and where I work. It was a very scary time for me and my family.”

Due to her adverse experiences, Johnson now teaches judicial security to help judges better protect themselves against threats. While she does not want to make all her safety tactics public, Johnson offers one absolute must to safeguard not only judges but also others could benefit from this practice: "You've got to get your personally identifiable information off of the Internet," Johnson urged.

Johnson said, regretfully, it is too easy to figure out where judges live.

"You have to stay on top of it and go through the process of actually filling out the forms to have [personal information] removed," Johnson said. "Judge Salas really brought that to the forefront back in 2020, so the states are following along the federal law with that. We're doing that in the state of Florida.”

Yet the threats, Johnson said, still loom.

“If somebody wants to take me out, they’re going to find out where I live," Johnson said. "They’re going to, you know, see me at the soccer field with my kid or at the grocery store, or follow my car or look for, you know, my information online, and find out where I go and pattern me."

Still, Johnson strives not to let fear dictate her service to her country.

“We can’t live in fear," Johnson said.

Stalkers and 24/7 Police Protection

Judge Carroll J. Kelly, who presides over Miami-Dade County’s domestic violence division, described a campaign of harassment so severe that law enforcement guarded her home around the clock.

Kelly said her stalker was a trained sniper, hand-to-hand combat expert, and an expert marksman.

"I had officers around the clock at my home, but they came in, they said, 'let’s get guns, let’s get those loaded,'" Kelly recalled. "You need to carry a gun with you at all times… they sat down with me and said, 'the truth of the matter is, we can have officers around your house, which we will, but if he wants to get you, he is so highly trained, he’s going to get you.'”

Kelly also described the digital attacks that followed a cyberstalking case she presided over.

“The litigant that lost said to me, ‘You’re going to see what happens to you now,’” Kelly recalled. Soon after, her inbox was flooded with 10,000 emails, her court system was paralyzed, and fraudulent activity appeared on her airline and credit card accounts.
“It makes me fearful," Kelly said. "I’m still always looking. Did that person come back? Are they going to try again?”

Panelists agreed that female judges are disproportionately targeted with threats laced with misogyny, racism, and sexualized violence.

Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Márquez, who faced a torrent of threats after her court disqualified Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, said, “Many of those messages in certain cases were overtly racist or overtly misogynistic. Overtly referred to sexual violence. [They] were overtly homophobic.”

“It was very clear as time passed that the women at our court were receiving more of that attention, and the flavor of that attention was gendered,” Márquez said. “As a person of color and a member of the LGBT community, mine had yet another layer on top of that.”
The National Picture

Judges across the country are reporting similar experiences.

Judge Audra Ibarra, of California’s Santa Clara County, described doxxing incidents in which her home address was repeatedly filed publicly by a disgruntled litigant. And she recounted her own experience as a federal prosecutor, when a hit was ordered on her family.

"In a prior life, when I was a federal prosecutor, my husband was a DA," Ibarra said. "We had a hit on our family, and we didn't find out because of the person telling us; we found out because a confidential informant came in. So like Judge Kelly, we moved out for several years."

Salas, whose son was murdered in 2020 by a gunman targeting her, said, “Because this information isn’t being tracked, we don’t even know how many judges across this great country have been threatened in the line of duty. That’s why these platforms are critical.”
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida said she was “horrified to know that Judge Kelly was told by law enforcement that she had to be trained to use a weapon and to carry it with her to protect herself.”

A Call for Action

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), who co-sponsored the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, emphasized the urgency of establishing a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center.

“If you commit your life to serving our nation and to serving in our judiciary, you shouldn’t have to think about paying for that service with your life, either you or your family,” Coons said. “It is horrifying what judges at the state and federal level have gone through.”

The bill allows funds awarded by the State Justice Institute to be used for establishing, implementing, and operating a judicial threat and intelligence resource center. The State Justice Institute is a private, nonprofit corporation established by federal law to support and improve the administration of justice in state courts.

“I am very hopeful, because of the urgency of these ongoing threats to the rule of law and attacks on our judiciary, that we will get it to the President’s desk signed into law and deliver these additional analytical resources to protect our state and local judges every bit as much as we protect the federal judiciary,” Coons said.

“This Hate is Heavy”

For judges like Johnson and Kelly, the personal risks are not abstract. They are lived realities of public service in an era when anger at the judiciary often translates into personal, gender-based violence.

Johnson said dealing with threats of violence is not a part of the job description.
"We have to stand up and say, this is unacceptable," Johnson said. "Judges should not be threatened."

Salas put it bluntly: “We have to start learning to agree to disagree. This hate is heavy, love is light. We don’t want to live like this. We want to do our jobs,