Chief Justice Roberts Emphasizes Judicial Security in Year-End Report

Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., who oversees the federal judiciary in addition to leading the nation’s highest court, released the federal judiciary’s year end report for 2022 on Friday. 

Roberts emphasized justices’ and other federal court officials’ need for safety and security for themselves and their families after a year of increased security challenges at the Supreme Court. 

While the case was not mentioned by name in the report, concerns about the safety of Supreme Court justices have risen since the decision to overturn the right to abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade was leaked in May 2022.

In the report, Roberts referenced the historical bomb threats and other threats of violence made against former District Court Judge Ronald Davies after the court’s landmark decision ordering desegregation in U.S. schools. 

Despite the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that held that school segregation by race was unconstitutional, not all states complied. 

When the school board in Little Rock, Arkansas, prepared to integrate schools in the fall of 1957 on the order of Davies’ district court, the first class of Black teenagers to enroll at Little Rock’s Central High School, known as the Little Rock Nine, were met by an angry crowd. That crowd was encouraged and empowered by the Governor of Arkansas to prevent them from entering. 

“It was purely a question of whether the Governor of the State of Arkansas could get away with the doctrine of interposition, placing himself between the Federal Government and the people of Arkansas,” Davies said regarding the decision. “The law was very clear that the schools had to be integrated.” 

In deciding the case, Davies also said: “I have a constitutional duty and obligation from which I shall not shrink. In an organized society, there can be nothing but ultimate confusion and chaos if court decrees are flaunted.”

Roberts recounted in his report how Davies would later reportedly field several threats from people disgruntled with the court’s decisions, including a bomb threat.

“Judicial opinions speak for themselves, and there is no obligation in our free country to agree with them,” Roberts said in the report. 

“A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” Roberts later added. “The events of Little Rock teach about the importance of rule by law instead of by mob.”

Judicial Security 

Following a leaked draft opinion to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, protestors marched to the homes of the Supreme Court justices, which prompted U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to direct the U.S. Marshals Service to assist in providing 24-hour security.

Over the summer, a man called in a threat against Brett Kavanaugh to emergency services in Maryland after traveling from California with a gun, ammunition and burglary supplies. He was charged with attempted murder.

“The rise of violence and unlawful threats of violence directed at those who serve the public is unacceptable and dangerous to our democracy,” Garland said. “I want to be clear: while people vote, argue, and debate in a democracy, we must not – we cannot – allow violence or unlawful threats of violence to permeate our national life.”

A month after the leak, Congress passed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act of 2022, which grants the Marshal of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Police the authority to protect any member of the justice’s immediate family, if necessary. 

In addition, last month Congress enacted the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act to help protect judges and their families, named after the son of Judge Esther Salas, a U.S. District Judge in New Jersey. He was killed in 2020 when he answered the door to her home in what was meant to be an attack on her.

The law prohibits federal agencies and private businesses from making certain information about the justices and their immediate family members public, like home addresses. 

In addition, information must be removed on request of the federal judge and the law both prohibits data brokers from purchasing or selling related information and establishes programs to safeguard the privacy of the judges to enhance their security. 

Court Workload

Roberts concluded his report by detailing annual court workload statistics. Notably, the number of cases filed in the Supreme Court fell by 8 percent compared to the previous year, from 5,307 filings in the 2020 Term to 4,900 filings in the 2021 Term, with similar caseload drops in other courts including the U.S. Courts of Appeals, U.S. District Courts and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts.

The Supreme Court 2021 term began on October 4, 2021, and ended on October 2, 2022. During the 2021 Term, 70 cases were argued and 63 were disposed of in 58 signed opinions, compared to 72 cases argued and 69 disposed of in 55 signed opinions in the 2020 Term.