A Reuters special report published on May 2, 2025, highlights the troubling surge in threats toward federal judges and their families following rulings against the Trump administration. In the report, Reuters analyzed over 600 social media and message board posts since February targeting families of judges who have issued rulings against the Trump administration. Prominent Trump allies have amplified these posts — which have been viewed over 200 million times — with at least 70 posts explicitly calling for judges’ families to face “violence, retaliation, or arrest.”
In the article, Paul W. Grimm, director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School and a retired federal judge, warned that such intimidation tactics could deter would-be qualified judges from taking office. David F. Levi, director emeritus of the Institute and himself a former federal judge, also expressed concerns about the chilling effect these attacks have on the judiciary. “I don’t think that most judges thought they were taking on risk to their families when they accepted the job,” he said. “Not in the way we are experiencing right now.”
Read the full article at Reuters.com.
The Institute is currently leading an effort to counter disinformation and unfair attacks on judges. Learn more at judicialstudies.duke.edu/defending. If you are interested in learning more about judges and the judiciary, check out the Institute’s nonpartisan, self-paced online course Civics Break.