AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Congress is putting the safety of federal judges at risk at a time when threats against court officials are on the upswing, the US judiciary has warned.
The federal judiciary announced Friday that a shortfall in congressional funding this year is hampering the judicial branch’s ability to maintain courthouse security amid the rise in threats on US judges.
Judicial Conference secretary Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. and Judge Amy J. St. Eve, the chair of the Conference’s Budget Committee, sounded the alarm in a letter last week to members of Congress serving on the House and Senate appropriations committees.
“We have significant concerns about our ability to properly secure federal courthouses given current resource levels,” Conrad and St. Eve wrote in the April 10 letter.
The latest congressional appropriations left the judicial branch with an $8.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2025 — $391 million less than the Judicial Conference had requested last year.
As a result, the US judiciary said, many of the judicial branch’s accounts are frozen for a second consecutive year, leaving them operating at fiscal year 2023 levels.
Funding for court security remains stagnant at $750 million, it said.
“Consecutive years of flat security funding comes at a time when threats against federal judges and courthouses are escalating, making this situation unsustainable in the current environment,” Conrad and St. Eve wrote in the letter.
Representatives for the members of Congress to whom the letter was addressed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter pointed to US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts‘ 2024 year-end report on the federal judiciary, in which he said there had been a significant uptick in threats to the courts.
Roberts wrote at the time that over the past five years, the US Marshals Service had investigated more than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges.
“Some of these threats have necessitated additional security measures by the US Marshals Service, and approximately 50 individuals have been criminally charged in connection with threats,” Conrad and St. Eve wrote to the Congress members.
The letter said that currently, 67 judges involved in high-profile cases are receiving “enhanced online security screening services” provided by the Administrative Office of the US Courts and the Marshals Service.
“In extreme cases, the US Marshals Service has been required to take extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of judges,” Conrad and St. Eve wrote. They said they’re also concerned about the impact of hiring freezes and staffing losses at the Marshals Service and General Services Administration on courthouse security.
Additionally, Conrad and St. Eve said that the Judiciary’s Defender Services program and court staff salaries have also been greatly underfunded.
The judiciary is scheduled to submit its budget request for fiscal year 2026 this month, and Conrad and St. Eve wrote that “adequate funding of that request will be critical to mitigating the adverse impacts” of the recent budget gaps.
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