Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has been named the 2024 Raphael Lemkin Rule of Law Guardian Medal recipient in recognition of her efforts to strengthen laws that protect the physical safety of judges and their families.
The Lemkin Medal is awarded annually by the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School to honor individuals who protect and defend the rule of law. Judge Salas will be honored during a program at Duke Law in October. The 2024 Lemkin Medal will also kick off the Institute’s first Defending the Judiciary Conference and is part of a greater effort to mobilize the legal profession to defend judges and the judiciary from a growing wave of threats and attacks. Both events will be recorded and archived on Duke Law’s YouTube channel.
In July 2020, a former litigant dressed as a delivery person went to Judge Salas’s home with the goal of assassinating her. When her son, Daniel Anderl, answered the door, the gunman opened fire. He killed Daniel and severely wounded Mark Anderl, Salas’s husband, before committing suicide. Daniel was the couple’s only child and had just celebrated his 20th birthday.
Driven by this unfathomable loss, Judge Salas worked to pass bipartisan legislation to better protect federal judges and their families. She is now leading efforts to assist states in passing similar laws to protect state court judges and their families.
“I want to congratulate Judge Esther Salas on being honored as this year’s Lemkin Rule of Law Guardian,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), who sponsored the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act in the House of Representatives. “After losing her beloved son in a senseless attack, Judge Salas has turned tragedy into action as she relentlessly works to protect the safety and security of federal judges and their families. It was an honor and a privilege to work with Judge Salas in passing the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act into law. Her continued advocacy and incredible strength were critical to getting this legislation across the finish line, and it will undoubtedly continue to protect our judges and their families so they can continue to protect the rule of law.”
“Judge Salas’s efforts to try to make sure other judges do not have to endure the same sort of horrific tragedy that she and her family endured are nothing short of heroic,” said Paul W. Grimm, a retired federal judge and the David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law and Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School. “Threats to judicial security have increased dramatically in recent years, and Daniel’s Law is an important step toward protecting judges and their families. All judges owe Judge Salas a debt of gratitude for taking this issue on and working so tirelessly in the wake of deep personal tragedy to pass this law and raise awareness of the dangers judges face. The Lemkin Medal is one way the Bolch Institute can honor her work and join her in the effort to protect judges and defend the judiciary from unfair and unwarranted attacks and threats to their personal safety.”
The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in December 2022, “prohibits federal agencies and private businesses from publicly posting the personally identifiable information (e.g., home addresses) of federal judges and their immediate family members. It also (1) requires information to be removed upon written request from the federal judge concerned, (2) prohibits data brokers from purchasing or selling such information, and (3) establishes programs to protect such information at the state and local level and to enhance security for judges.”
The law was co-sponsored by 22 members of the Senate and 124 members of the House from both major political parties.
Judges’ personal directory information was previously easily searchable online. The assailant who targeted Judge Salas’s family — a former litigant in Salas’s courtroom who described himself as an “antifeminist” — had found her home address using internet searches. He was later found to have developed a list of more than a dozen targets, including the names of three additional jurists.
The U.S. Marshals Service investigated 457 threats against federal judges in 2023, including threats to kill federal judges and to carry out mass shootings at courthouses, said Marshals Director Ron Davis during a House committee hearing in February 2024. He said threats against judges more than doubled in two years, up from 224 investigations in 2021, and that online threats and swatting, or fake 911 calls to elicit a police response, also have increased. These numbers do not include threats to state judges, which are not uniformly tracked.
Judge Salas described the horror of the day her son was murdered and her efforts to pass Daniel’s Law in a 2023 interview in Judicature. “Judges need to be able to do their job without fear of retribution, retaliation, or death,” she said. “This country doesn’t work if we don’t have that independence.”
With that goal in mind, Judge Salas worked with congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle to draft and pass Daniel’s Law. “Sadly, what helped was that the threats kept coming,” she said. “Even after Daniel’s murder, on a Sunday afternoon in broad daylight . . . even after that bold, tragic event, we saw things like Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh’s life being threatened. How? By someone getting his information off the internet. Then within days of that Justice Kavanaugh scare, we saw the sad news that retired Judge [John] Roemer from Wisconsin was assassinated in his home by someone he had sentenced 15 years earlier. We continued to see the number of inappropriate threats to judges rise. . . . We saw that the threat remained a clear and present danger. And that, I think, helped propel the bill forward to the President’s desk. The Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Law will save lives by at least making it harder for those people who want to harm us to find us.”
Judge Salas is now helping to advance efforts to pass similar laws in the states to protect the nation’s 30,000 state court judicial officials, and Congress is considering a new bipartisan bill, the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, that would establish a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center to provide technical assistance, training, and monitoring of threats for state and local judges and court personnel; provide physical security assessments; and coordinate research to identify, examine, and advance best practices around court security.
“Judge Salas is the perfect recipient of the 2024 Lemkin Rule of Law Guardian Medal,” said U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg (Duke JD’89), who worked with Judge Salas to secure congressional support for Daniel’s Law. “After the tragic murder of her beloved son, Danny, she turned grief into purpose by leading the efforts to ensure passage of a new federal law to better protect the security of all judges and their families. Judge Salas believes that democracy means judges are able to make decisions without the fear of personal harm. That she acts on this principle in the face of such personal loss is a testament to Judge Salas. The award is an appropriate recognition of her courage and professionalism.”
The Lemkin Medal program will serve as the kickoff event for a two-day conference on Defending the Judiciary, hosted by the Bolch Judicial Institute. The conference will explore the practical steps judges, lawyers, and bar organizations can take to address a growing wave of unfair and inappropriate attacks on judges that threaten judicial independence and diminish public faith in our judicial system.
“Our democracy depends on judges who can fulfill their duties without fear or intimidation,” said Kerry Abrams, dean of Duke Law School. “Judge Salas’s efforts to pass Daniel’s Law remind us that we play a role in supporting and strengthening our institutions. I am proud to join the Bolch Judicial Institute in honoring Judge Salas with the Lemkin Medal and in supporting her ongoing mission to protect judges and judicial independence.”
Learn more about the Lemkin Medal and Raphael Lemkin here.