Colorado Supreme Court justices flooded with threats after 2023 ruling against Trump

By Nate Raymond

Sept 25 (Reuters) - The Colorado Supreme Court's chief justice recounted on Thursday how she and her colleagues were targeted by a barrage of threats after ruling in 2023 that now-President Donald Trump could not appear on the state's primary ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Márquez detailed her experience during a virtual forum featuring state court judges speaking out about threats targeting them and others on the bench and the risks they pose to the judiciary.

"If our judicial officers are not making decisions based on the law and the facts in a case before them, but instead are making decisions based out of fear for their family's safety, that means our entire judicial system is going to start to unravel," Márquez said at the "Speak Up For Justice" event.

The event comes at a moment when concern is rising about political violence in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month, and increasing threats targeting members of the judiciary at the federal and state level.

At the federal level alone, the U.S. Marshals Service says that as of Sept. 15, it logged 543 threats against 380 federal judges in the 2025 fiscal year.

Law enforcement in December 2023 began investigating threats against the Colorado justices soon after they ruled 4-3 that Trump should be barred from the ballot under part of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment disqualifying anyone who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding public office.

The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2024 sided with Trump and overturned that ruling, ensuring he appeared on ballots in every state nationally in the November 2024 election, which returned the Republican to the White House.

Márquez said that while her court was divided in its opinion, "the intense public reaction to that decision led to a wave of attacks on all seven of us," and the court was "overwhelmed with hateful phone calls, voicemails and emails."

Several justices were victims of "swatting" attacks, she said, in which individuals falsely reported crimes in progress to provoke emergency responses by police at a person's home.

In one case, nine SWAT officers barged into a justice's home at night with flashlights and weapons drawn, Márquez said. The swatting incidents resulted in several justices being advised to vacate their homes for a few days, she said.

"These can be terrifying," she said.

Family members began receiving "disturbing," unwanted pizza deliveries, which Márquez said were intended to send the message that the sender knew where they lived.

That phenomenon has repeated this year, with numerous judges reporting having likewise received unwanted pizzas while presiding over litigation challenging Trump's agenda.

Justices were also "doxxed," she said. They received racist, misogynistic and homophobic calls and text messages on their personal cell phones, while some justices were signed up for unwanted subscriptions, including for pornographic websites, Márquez said.

No one has been charged in any of the incidents.

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