Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Letter Documents Increased Threats to Judges and Their Families

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a bipartisan letter, signed by 44 states, to congressional leaders requesting additional funding for the security of federal judges, who are increasingly facing threats and hostile incidents targeting them, their families and courthouse staff.

“The safety and independence of our judiciary is vital to democracy,” Raoul said. “Threats against federal judges have more than doubled in recent years. Judges and their families should not have to live in fear. I join my fellow attorneys in a bipartisan coalition calling on Congress to ensure that they are protected.”

Funding for the Judiciary’s Court Security program has been subject to a “hard freeze” for two consecutive years, leaving inadequate resources to meet essential security needs at federal courthouses. The funding shortfall implicates court security officer salaries, visual and physical monitoring systems, and other aspects of courthouse security infrastructure.

Additional resources are also necessary to fund the Judiciary’s Vulnerability Management Program (VMP), which implements the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act. The Anderl Act, passed in 2022 with bipartisan support, honors Daniel Anderl, the son of New Jersey District Court Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered in his home in 2020 during an attempted assassination of Judge Salas. The Anderl Act prohibits data brokers from selling judges’ personally identifiable information and enables federal judges and their family members to request that businesses and government agencies remove such information from their websites.

As the coalition’s letter explains, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. discussed the increased threat level facing the judiciary in his 2024 year-end report. The letter notes that these trends have continued into 2025, with more than 100 judges nationwide reporting that they have received unsolicited deliveries to their homes. The deliveries were intended to intimidate judges and their relatives. Disturbingly, some were placed in the name of Daniel Anderl.

Joining Raoul in sending the letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.