Federal judges have varied their commutes, hired private security and fortified their homes, including with panic buttons, amid a barrage of threats and harassment in recent months that has left many of them anxious about their safety, according to two new studies.
In an astonishing admission, one judge acknowledged considering an alternative ruling to avoid vitriol that could endanger the judge’s family. The federal judge, like some of the others interviewed for the studies, spoke to the authors on condition of anonymity.
The reports follow a spike in threats against federal judges. “Security incidents of significant concern” increased 57% in the year that ended in September 2025 and were on pace to rise again this year, according to a March report by the agency that administers the U.S. court system.
While some U.S. judges have spoken publicly about threats, the new studies by legal scholars at New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Brennan Center for Justice are based on detailed testimony from dozens of judges. Together, they present a chilling portrait of a judicial branch under extreme stress.
“We are in a different era,” said Amrit Singh, director of the Rule of Law Lab at New York University and lead author of one of the studies. “The volume, intensity, character and modalities of the threats that we are witnessing today are new.”
Judges told Singh they felt overwhelmed, had trouble sleeping and had installed security cameras and panic buttons. Many were worried about their families.
Singh declined to reveal more information about the judge who considered an alternative ruling, but the judge recalled feeling gripped by fear and agonizing for nearly an hour before sticking with the decision the law required.
In the second study, one judge reported having home floor plans leaked and building a safe room. The judge, who asked to remain anonymous, received more than 700 threatening phone calls after hearing a Trump administration immigration case.
“Long term, there really is a danger to the rule of law from these threats,” said Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security at the Brennan Center and co-author of the second report on judicial threats.
The NYU-Berkeley report is based on interviews with 32 active U.S. district and appellate judges — half nominated by Democrats and the other half by Republicans — as well as two active magistrate judges. The Brennan Center interviewed 35 sitting and retired federal judges, eight of whom were nominated by Republican presidents.
The reports recommend adequate funding for judicial security and additional efforts to protect judges’ personal information. The NYU-Berkeley report also calls for more prosecutions of people making threats, noting that there have been few cases.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas participated in interviews for both studies. She told The Associated Press Tuesday that repeated attacks on judges by President Donald Trump and his administration have made her more worried about judicial safety today than she was immediately after her son, Daniel Anderl, was shot and killed by a litigant posing as a deliveryman in 2020. The attack at her home also left her husband, Mark, wounded.
Since then, scores of judges have been threatened by unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homes, sometimes in Anderl’s name.
Trump has called a district judge who ruled against one of his immigration moves “crooked” and suggested without evidence that U.S. Supreme Court justices who struck down his tariffs were motivated by foreign interests.
Salas fears people will become desensitized to harmful rhetoric against the judicial branch, which she said was “under assault.”
“What Mark has been through and what our family has endured, I can’t describe with mere words,” she said in a phone interview. “But what I can say is this: We know what is at stake.”
FILE - Crime scene tape surrounds the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick, N.J., on Monday, July 20, 2020, after a gunman posing as a delivery person shot and killed Salas' 20-year-old son and wounded her husband Sunday evening. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - News media is set up in front of the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick, N.J., on Monday, July 20, 2020, after a gunman posing as a delivery person shot and killed Salas' 20-year-old son and wounded her husband Sunday evening. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) — Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall Tuesday afternoon along the Texas-Louisiana border after picking up a late burst of strength in the Gulf of Mexico, bringing ashore heavy rains and setting off flood warnings along the coast.
The storm made landfall in the small coastal community of Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, and was expected to rapidly weaken. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). In the meantime, several storms were brewing in the Pacific Ocean, including Lowell, which reached hurricane strength Tuesday morning.
The hurricane center said Edouard was expected to dump 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rain along the Texas coast through east-central Texas, but some areas could see up to 9 inches (23 centimeters). Southwestern Louisiana was expected to see lesser amounts.
“That rainfall could produce some flash flooding and river flooding,” said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the biggest problem expected from the storm is flooding.
“This is our first big storm of the season, and I’ll tell you, Texas is prepared,” Orlando Alanis of the Texas Division of Emergency Management said during a news conference.
Crews worked Monday to clear dry vegetation that could ignite from a lightning strike and cause fast-spreading fires, Abbott said.
In Cameron, Louisiana, the winds had picked up and rain was coming through on and off Tuesday morning, said Connor Salvador, who owns an RV park there near the coast. “Nothing too crazy yet,” he said.
He said while there could be a “little bit” of flooding if they get a lot of rain, he wasn't too worried about Edouard.
“We’re pretty used to all these types of storms that come through,” he said.
Forecasters said newly formed Hurricane Lowell in the Pacific Ocean was expected to remain several hundred miles away from Hawaii for the next several days at least, but swells from the hurricane were likely to impact parts of the islands beginning Wednesday.
“This hurricane is likely to increase the surf and make for dangerous beach conditions and marine conditions for any boaters near the Hawaiian islands over the next few days,” said Andrew Hagan, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center.
Tropical Storm Marie formed in the Pacific Ocean early Tuesday well offshore of southwest Mexico and wasn’t threatening land, the center said. Forecasters said the storm about 400 miles (640 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo was gradually strengthening and was expected to become a hurricane by Wednesday night.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, Karina became a hurricane Sunday, fueled by warm waters far from any shore. It strengthened Monday into a powerful Category 4 storm but forecasters said Tuesday that it was expected to weaken.
Meanwhile, the remnants of Tropical Storm Dolly brought rain and thunderstorms to parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Turks & Caicos, and the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.
Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press journalist Julie Walker contributed to this report from New York.
Fishermen cast their lines in surf stirred up by Tropical Storm Edouard in Galveston, Texas, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Surfers try to catch a wave in surf stirred up by Tropical Storm Edouard in Galveston, Texas, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Motorists drive by Texas Department of Transportation signs on I-610 as Tropical Storm Edouard approaches in Houston, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Dark clouds hand low over the horizon as Tropical Storm Edouard makes its way towards landfall in Galveston, Texas, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Motorists drive by Texas Department of Transportation signs on I-610 as Tropical Storm Edouard approaches in Houston, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Edouard over the Gulf of Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taken shows Tropical Storm Edouard heading toward the Gulf Coast, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image released by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Marie in the North Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, Sept.1, 2026 . (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image released by NOAA shows Hurricane Karina strengthening off the southern tip of Baja California on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image released by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Lowell over the Pacific Ocean, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image released by NOAA shows Potential Tropical Cyclone Five forming over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
