Hate Amplified: Online Posts About U.S. Judges Take Increasingly Violent Turn
Online rhetoric about judges in the United States is becoming increasingly violent and justices are expressing concerns about their personal safety.
A study from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published earlier this month found a 327 percent increase in violent threats and impeachment calls for judges on social media platforms 4Chan, Gab, and X. But the rhetoric also spread to other social media platforms, including TikTok and Truth Social.
The chatter comes after a pattern of judicial disparagement by U.S. President Donald Trump and many of his administration’s officials following judge’s rulings that were not in their favor. In March, for instance, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Chief Judge James E. Boasberg should be impeached for ruling to halt the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act that the administration claimed included gang members.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!,” according to Trump’s account, which also called the judge, without evidence, a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator.”
Since Trump took office, GPAHE has tracked a 54 percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges on social media from January to February 2025. Taking their analysis further, GPAHE researchers looked at 1 May 2024 to 30 April 2025 and found that the same rhetoric had risen 327 percent between May 2024 and March 2025.
“GPAHE findings suggest that a rise in anti-democratic language from prominent American figures on the far right likely influenced extremists on social media to also attack the judiciary, leading to large increases in violent language and calls for impeachment targeting judges on several platforms,” according to a blog post by GPAHE. “March 2025 served as a flashpoint for this rhetoric, as people and organizations associated with Trump and Project 2025 made several attempts to portray the American judiciary as ‘gavel-wielding dictators’ bent towards ‘lunacy’ and lawlessness.’ Trump also upped his attacks against judges that month, calling for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment, describing him as a far-left ‘troublemaker and agitator.’”
GPAHE documented just 35 posts that included violent language and impeachment for judges on TikTok in May 2024, but that rose 537 percent to 223 instances documented in March 2025 alone. On Truth Social, which is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, GPAHE has seen a 324 percent increase in this language, from 2,232 posts in May 2024 to 9,462 posts in March 2025.
“May 2024’s onslaught of comments coincided with Trump’s May 30 conviction in the hush money trial,” GPAHE found. “Comments from Truth Social users included wanting to ‘kill all the dirty judges,’ and find judges ‘guilty of treason,’ ‘election interference,’ and ‘election fraud.’ Since January, and especially in March, users on Truth Social claimed that judges were organizing a ‘judicial coup,’ and called for ‘activist judges’ (a term used by Trump) to be fired and ‘hang[ed].’”
While these threats are being made online, kinetic actions offline are causing concern among many justices for their safety and their families’ wellbeing. In March, for instance, Judge Boasberg’s brother—a former school superintendent—was assigned a security detail after receiving several threats. In another incident, police responded to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s sister’s home because of a bomb threat.
That same month, Reuters wrote about the new trend of “pizza doxxing” targeting justices in the United States. The wire service spoke to a person familiar with judicial security, who said that “several federal judges in the Washington, D.C., area had received pizzas sent anonymously to their homes, which is being interpreted by law enforcement as a form of intimidation meant to convey that a target’s address is known.”
And this week, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas confirmed to CBS News that about 24 judges have received these pizza orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, her son who was killed in a 2020 attack at her home meant to target her.
Salas told CBS News that she planned to meet with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)—which is responsible for the security of federal court houses, judges, and prosecutors—this week to discuss the trend and threats to justices.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter this week to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel asking them to investigate the ongoing threats to federal judges.
“These incidents threaten not only judges and their families, but also judicial independence and the rule of law,” Durbin wrote. “It is imperative that the Justice Department and the FBI investigate these anonymous or pseudonymous delivers and those responsible be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
Durbin also urged Bondi and Patel to work to ensure that the size of the U.S. Marshals Service’s workforce is not reduced. In April, Acting USMS Director Mark P. Pittella reportedly sent a letter to more than 5,000 USMS employees offering them the opportunity to resign.
The USMS is responsible for the security of federal court houses, federal judges, and federal prosecutors in the United States. In its 2024 annual report, the USMS reported that verified threats against federal judges had doubled from historic norms and that threatening electronic communications related to protected people and locations increased.
“Based on an evolving and diverse range of threats, the USMS is currently providing the highest number of protective details that we have seen in decades,” said former USMS Director Ronald L. Davis in the report. “These protective measures, although not always visible to the general public, are critical to ensuring the security, stability, and integrity of our federal judicial system and the continuity of the U.S. government.”
Some of those protective measures included appointing protective service details to two judges who made legal decisions based on indictments of Trump, which resulted in direct threats to them.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his 2024 annual report that violence and intimidation directed towards justices threatens their independence and the rule of law. He explained that he was troubled by USMS statistics, which found that the volume of hostile threats and communications towards judges more than tripled during the past decade.
“In the past five years alone, the Marshals report that they have investigated more than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges,” Roberts wrote. “In several instances, these threats have required the assignment of full-time U.S. Marshals Service security details for federal judges, and approximately 50 individuals have been criminally charged. In extreme cases, judicial officers have been issued bulletproof vests for public events.”
The U.S. political system and economic strength depend on the rule of law, which Roberts explained is subsequently dependent on the judges and justices appointed and confirmed in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.
“Chief Justice Taft is the only person to have served as head of the judicial and a political branch,” Roberts added. “As he put it, ‘Nothing tends more to render judges careful in their decisions and anxiously solicitous to do exact justice than the consciousness that every act of theirs is to be subject to the intelligent scrutiny of their fellow men, and to their candid criticism.’ But violence, intimidation, and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable.”
For more on judicial security, read “In Polarized Environments, Attorneys and Judges Face a Multitude of Threats,” originally published in October 2024.
