“The Domino’s pizzas arrived at the homes of federal judges without explanation,” the Times editorial board wrote earlier this year. “The message was clear: We know where you live.” In the Opinion Video above, Esther Salas, a federal district judge in New Jersey, describes the stakes of increasingly frequent threats against members of the judiciary, which, in Judge Salas’s view, are fueled by today’s sharply divisive political rhetoric. If a judge is forced “to think about a safer choice” when weighing the verdict of a case, she asks, “is that justice?” For Judge Salas, the issue is personal: Her husband was shot and her son was killed by a man seeking to kill her. And now those pizzas are being delivered in her dead son’s name.
Esther Salas is a United States District Court judge for the District of New Jersey in Newark. Francesca Trianni is a producer for Opinion Video. Ingrid Holmquist is an associate producer for Opinion Video.
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