National court organization backs federal legislation to protect state judges

Williamsburg, Va. (July 23, 2025) — The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) applauds Tuesday's introduction of federal legislation intended to protect the safety and security of the nation's 30,000 state judicial officers. Unlike the federal judiciary, state and local judicial officers lack a resource center on judicial security. 

Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) alongside representatives Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) introduced the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act.  The bill establishes 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. Similar legislation unanimously passed the United States Senate in the 118th Congress.

"This legislation is vital to the security of every state judge in America," said NCSC President Elizabeth T. Clement. "We urge Congress to take action today to help keep our judges safe."

Judicial officers throughout the nation are subjected to frequent threats of violence. In 2021, individuals protected by the U.S. Marshals Service — including federal judges, prosecutors, and court officials — faced over 4,500 threats, a 400% increase since 2015. In the last several years, state judges and court personnel in multiple states have been killed, attacked, and even subject to murder plots simply for doing their jobs and deciding cases according to law. Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew F. Wilkinson was murdered outside his Maryland home in 2023.

"While judges have always lived with a certain level of risk, we have never experienced risk on the scale that we currently see today," said Chief Justice Matthew Fader of Maryland. "We are facing an entirely new threat environment that drives to the very heart of the rule of law and the fair administration of justice under law."

In 2022, former Juneau County Circuit Court Judge John Roemer was killed in his Wisconsin home. State judges and court personnel have been threatened or attacked in Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Mississippi, Rhode Island, New York, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Wyoming, Idaho, and Indiana. Numerous bomb threats have been made toward state court facilities. Court clerks are threatened and harassed daily, and state supreme court justices handling controversial cases are seeing an increase in threats and intimidation. 

While the U.S. Marshals Service monitors, addresses, and develops best practices around threats to the federal judiciary, there is no such resource center for the judicial officers who serve in state and local courts. Due to the interstate nature of these threats, the bill addresses the importance of pooling state resources to ensure the safety of state and local judges. 

Bipartisan support

This bill has received bipartisan support. Cosponsors include: Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.); and Representatives Lance Gooden (R-Texas), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (D-Ga.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Joe Neguse (D-Colo.).

Background

The Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act would create a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center to:

• Provide technical assistance to state and local judges and court personnel around judicial security.
• Provide physical security assessments for courts, homes, and other facilities where judicial officers and staff conduct court-related business.
• Coordinate research to identify, examine, and advance best practices around judicial security. 

By creating a centralized intelligence and resource center, this bill would help preserve public faith in the judicial system by protecting our judges and state court administrators, allowing them to fulfill their roles of administering justice.

Read the Senate and House press releases to learn more.