AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And it's not just members of Congress dealing with these threats. Federal judges say they are also experiencing them. They say it's because of the ways they rule. As NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, lawyers and community groups are working together to stop this.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: U.S. District Judge Esther Salas lost her son nearly six years ago when a disgruntled lawyer showed up at her home and opened fire. Last week, she spoke at an American Bar Association conference in Boston.
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ESTHER SALAS: I am more concerned now than I have ever been, including when my only child was murdered in my foyer of my home.
JOHNSON: Judge Salas detailed a widespread campaign to intimidate judges.
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SALAS: When a ruling goes a certain way, there's praise.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Right.
SALAS: When a ruling goes another way, there's demonization.
JOHNSON: Salas said other judges have been getting unwanted pizza deliveries at strange hours. Some of those pizzas have been sent in the name of her dead son.
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SALAS: These pizza-doxing incidents are allegedly being investigated, but I have yet to see the attorney general or the deputy attorney general denounce these acts of intimidation at a podium.
JOHNSON: Salas said it's up to the American people to speak up and support judges under pressure. One group has been taking that message to heart. Naomi Leavitt (ph) helped found Support the Courts last year.
NAOMI LEAVITT: We feel really strongly that no judge should be threatened in any way, and if anybody's threatened, then our democracy is weak.
JOHNSON: On a rainy Boston afternoon, she stood on a busy street outside the ABA conference wearing a purple T-shirt and handing out flyers.
LEAVITT: Thank you. Thanks for stopping.
JOHNSON: Kathy Jantzen (ph) is another member of the group.
KATHY JANTZEN: We're really trying very hard to support the branch of government that is under attack at the moment, which is the judiciary.
JOHNSON: Support the Courts recently launched a campaign to send postcards to every federal judge, and they set up a tool kit so other communities can rally to back judges across the country.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF KARATE BOOGALOO'S "ONE HAND ONE BOUNCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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