Federal District Judge John Coughenour said he was unprepared for the violent backlash after he temporarily blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order and called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” He recounted receiving “dozens if not hundreds” of death threats and said he had never seen such hostility toward the judiciary in his 44-year career. “I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions. I think it’s because there are people who think they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary,” he said.
President Trump has frequently disparaged judges, calling some “lunatics,” “crooked” or “Trump-hating,” and threats often follow rulings that go against his administration. The U.S. Marshals Service reported that about 400 federal judges were the targets of serious threats last year, a 78% increase from four years earlier.
The White House told CBS News it was “deeply unserious” to suggest its comments about judges could prompt threats, noting that as “a survivor of two assassination attempts, no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump.” The White House also accused the judiciary of “brazen defiance” through what it called unlawful rulings that have “repeatedly obstructed the election choices of the American people.”
Judges from both parties say the harsh political rhetoric endangers their safety and undermines judicial independence. Sixty Minutes spoke with 26 federal judges — nine appointed by Democrats and 17 by Republicans — and many described growing concerns about the health of American democracy. “The independence of the judiciary is extraordinarily important,” Coughenour said. “It’s too important to allow it to be sacrificed.”
Why judges are targeted
Trump has publicly attacked Supreme Court justices and lower-court judges when decisions run counter to his agenda. After the Supreme Court struck down his global tariffs, he denounced justices as “fools and lapdogs” and accused them of disloyalty to the Constitution. At a Michigan rally last year he warned he would not let “a handful of communist radical left judges” obstruct enforcement of laws.
Retired Federal Judge John Jones, a George W. Bush appointee, said the president appears intent on delegitimizing the federal courts. “This is a presidency sort of on steroids,” Jones said, noting a weakened Congress and an executive that seeks to redefine legal limits. With more than 600 lawsuits challenging the administration’s actions, judges are frequently forced to resolve disputes at the center of political battles.
Justice Department officials declined an interview with 60 Minutes. At a Federalist Society event last year, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blamed judges for blocking presidential actions: “We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals because of local judges just not following the law, full stop,” he said, adding that a subset of judges are “repeat players” and describing the situation as “a war, man.” In an email to 60 Minutes, Blanche called some injunctions “overbroad and even unreasoned” and underscored that “threats and intimidation of federal officials is unlawful.”
Types of threats and intimidation
Coughenour said that after his birthright citizenship ruling he was the target of hoaxes and threats: deputies responded to a call that he had killed his wife, a bomb threat was made, and a congressman later posted a wanted-style image naming federal judges who had ruled against the administration. He said the episodes left him and his family deeply unsettled.
Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall, a company that helps remove judges’ personal data from the web, said the nature of threats has shifted. “The threats used to be, ‘you ruled against me and I want to kill you.’ Now the kind of threats we’re seeing, there’s a whole other sphere of saying ‘I want to influence what you do.’ It’s mob mentality,” he said.
The U.S. Marshals are investigating so-called “pizza doxxing,” in which unsolicited pizzas are ordered and delivered to judges’ homes in a veiled effort to show their addresses are known. At least 20 pizzas were reportedly sent to homes using the name of Daniel Salas, the son of New Jersey Federal Judge Esther Salas; Daniel was murdered in 2020 by a disgruntled litigant who attacked the family at their home, killing him and wounding Judge Salas’s husband. Salas called the pizza deliveries an ominous message: “We know where you live. We know where your children live,” she said. “Do you want to end up like Judge Salas’s son?”
Pressure on protective services
Judges say the U.S. Marshals Service, which evaluates which threats could lead to violence and provides protection when needed, is overwhelmed by the surge. Jones and 55 other retired judges formed a bipartisan group to press the White House to address the escalation. “In very plain English: if we’re not careful we’re gonna get a judge killed,” Jones said.
Salas, who lost her only child in the 2020 attack, emphasized that while political rhetoric did not directly cause that tragedy, the current climate makes similar incidents more likely. She urged restraint and warned that vilifying judges erodes public trust in the courts: “If you disagree with a ruling, appeal us. The answer is not to dehumanize us.”
Who is making threats
Threats come from across the political spectrum. Officials say there has also been a rise in left-wing threats, including against judges who have ruled in the president’s favor. High-profile Democrats have at times used heated language toward judges as well: in 2020 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned two Supreme Court justices they would “pay the price” if they limited abortion rights, a comment for which he later apologized. In 2022 a would-be assassin was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home.
Jones, who was appointed by a Republican president, said rhetoric from both sides has intensified over time but added there is “simply no evidence” of a pattern of behavior from Democrats comparable to the administration’s repeated public attacks on the federal judiciary.
Many judges and former judges say what is needed now is a recommitment to protecting the courts’ independence, stronger measures to shield jurists and their families from doxxing and harassment, and calmer public language from political leaders so that courts can do their work without fear for personal safety.