Judges ought to be able to fearlessly defend the Constitution and the rule of law. South Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier says, alas, that she and her fellow jurists are facing increasing threats to life and limb:
“I think every judge right now is concerned about their safety and the safety of their families,” said Judge Karen Schreier, speaking to the Sioux Falls Downtown Rotary Club at the South Dakota Military Heritage Alliance.
Schreier said judges across the country are facing “never-before-seen levels of threats” and intimidation, which she called “an attack on the rule of law itself.”
…“If judges are to protect the rights and liberties of citizens and to act as an effective check on the other branches of government, they must be independent,” she said. “They need to be free to decide cases based on the law” [Joshua Haiar, “Judge Says Colleagues Are Worried About ‘Their Safety and the Safety of Their Families’,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2025.10.06].
Judge Schreier says her South Dakota colleague Judge Roberto Lange was targeted with a swatting attack. Among her list of threats against the judiciary, Judge Schreier could have included the anonymous note Massachusetts federal Judge William G. Young received before hearing a case on the Trump policy of revoking student visas for objectionable speech—”Trump has pardons and tanks…. What do you have?”—a note that Judge Young included in his overturning of the Trump policy and his dauntless affirmation of the First Amendment.
Judge Young and Judge Schreier both show that judges can stand up for the Constitution, but we all have an obligation to make that job easier for them by declaring our own commitment to the rule of law and condemning public figures like Trump who criticize and foment public anger at judges who properly stand in the way of partisan political agendas that violate the Constitution.
https://www.salon.com/2025/10/06/police-investigate-fire-that-destroyed-judges-home/
Judge was out along sea shore walking her dog. Hubby and a couple other people were injured. Arson is suspected.
In April, 2024 a Wyoming’s Chief Justice warned of the violence being ginned up by Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem and hateful Harriet Hageman.
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2024-04-26/wyoming-supreme-court-chief-justice-speaks-on-the-need-for-increased-security-as-threats-to-judges-spike
Larry, isn’t Kristi the governor who brought in migrants to work the dairy farms? She sure dresses the part for all her films. Pretty as a picture. In fact there’s no uglies in trumps central casting come to think of it.
Mike from Iowa, it was probably just a Talking Heads fan who was inspired by Burning Down the House.
I will still maintain that much of this violence is cradled in the language of the Second Amendment fanatics who (like Charlie Kirk et al) gin up the testosterone of their followers by saying the right to bear and stockpile arms exists to be a check on tyranny. You cannot spend decades pushing that rationale (and its resulting sales) and not think that you are training people to take violent steps at times they feel “outrage” by what their leaders tell them is happening.
I would also argue that we gave the most violent a presidential candidate who famously flouts the rule-of-law. His contempt for the norms and rules of society are celebrated.
Lastly we live in a created political climate where EVERYTHING is political. Instead of courts litigating reality under established neutral rules of evidence and procedure, every decision is a promotion of liberal (or conservative) agendas.