Federal Judiciary Requests Funding Increase Amid Threats

The federal judiciary needs more funding, especially amid increasing threats to the institution, a federal judge told Congress on May 14.

Judge Amy St. Eve, who is on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court, testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that current appropriations have caused “the deferral of dozens of judicial security projects at a time when threats against judges are increasing.”

These threats include “pizza doxxings,” where the addresses of federal judges are publicized and unsolicited pizza orders are delivered to their homes with a message meant to intimidate them. An example included a delivery to a New Jersey judge addressed to Daniel Anderl, who was killed in 2020 by a disgruntled defendant who was trying to target his mother, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.

Another is protests outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices in 2022 following a report of a leaked decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, where eventually the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In March, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the subject of a bomb threat in South Carolina. No bomb was found.

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Moreover, current appropriations, said St. Eve, who was appointed to the circuit court under President Donald Trump in 2018, have led to “the suspension of more than two months of payments to private attorneys who have provided constitutionally required representation to indigent defendants, the continuation of a long hiring freeze in federal defender organizations, and a year-over-year reduction in the allotments made to courts and probation and pretrial services offices to serve and protect your constituents.”

St. Eve, who chairs the Budget Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, said that the federal judiciary is requesting $9.4 billion for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. That would be a 9.3 percent increase from the current fiscal year.

Of the $9.4 billion, the judiciary is requesting $892 million for security—an increase of $142 million, or 19 percent, from the current level.

Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and secretary of the Judicial Conference, testified before the subcommittee: “The independence of the judicial branch is jeopardized when judges are threatened with harm or impeachment for their rulings.”

“Our constitutional system depends on judges who can make decisions free from threats and intimidation,“ he continued. ”This is essential not just for the safety of judges and their families, but also to protect our democracy.”