A federal judge whose family was murdered asked the Senate on Wednesday to condemn harsh remarks about the
judiciary by commentators such as evangelist Pat Robertson and members of Congress, saying their words could spark more violence.
"Fostering disrespect for judges can only encourage those that are on the edge, or on the fringe, to exact
revenge on a judge who displeases them," U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Her husband and mother were slain in the couple's Chicago home in February. Bart Ross, a 57-year-old unemployed
electrician from Chicago, committed suicide in suburban Milwaukee in March after leaving a note confessing to the murders.
He had been angered when Lefkow dismissed a malpractice suit he had filed, authorities said.
The judge also was the target of a murder plot by white supremacist Matthew Hale...
Congress should "publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary" that have occurred
in the days since after the Terri Schiavo case,
Lefkow told the hearing on courthouse security.
After the death of Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman whose parents unsuccessfully sought to have her
feeding tube reinserted despite her husband's wishes, some Republican members of Congress lashed out at judges involved in
the case.
At the time, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said, "The actions on the part of the Florida court
and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable."
"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that
will change," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their
behavior."
Referring to a different decision, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he wondered whether frustration against
perceived political decisions by judges "builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence, certainly
without any justification."
Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition and head of the Christian Broadcasting Network, appeared on
ABC's "This Week" earlier this month and criticized the federal courts. "Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the
consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,"
he said.
Lefkow said that kind of "harsh rhetoric is truly dangerous."
"I have never encountered a judge in the federal judiciary who can remotely be described as posing a threat,
as Mr. Robertson said, 'probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,'" she said.
Lefkow called on Congress to increase funding for the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects judges. She
also wants legislation to ban putting personal information about judges and other government officials on the Internet without
their permission.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., focused on the importance of judges being willing to
request protection when needed. He asked Lefkow why she didn't request protection after the white supremacist group threatened
her life several years ago.
Lefkow said she lacked the expertise to properly assess the threat and that, to her knowledge, no system
was in place to properly assess and protect her safety.
Congress should make sure that money that has been allocated for home security systems for federal judges
gets to them as fast as possible, she said.
Congress has approved $12 million to install home security systems for the 2,200 active and semiretired
judges and magistrates in the federal court system.
"As recently as last Friday, which was May 13, I was spotted and harassed in a restaurant in downtown Chicago,"
Lefkow said. "Had that harasser come back rather than left a nasty sign and had a gun, then obviously I wouldn't be here today."
Judge Urges End to Verbal Attacks
A federal judge whose husband and mother were slain by a disgruntled litigant urged Congress on Wednesday
to help bring an end to ''truly dangerous'' verbal attacks on judges that might lead to violent action.
Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow said one way lawmakers could protect judges would be to condemn judge-bashing
remarks by commentators and colleagues.
''Fostering disrespect for judges can only encourage those that are on the edge, or on the fringe, to exact
revenge,'' Lefkow told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
''I understand that Congress cannot eradicate violence against judges, nor are we exempt from this madness
in the shadows,'' she said, borrowing the final phrase from a note from former President Clinton, who appointed her in 2000
to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
''But as I replay in my mind the events that led to our tragedy,'' she went on, ''I believe that several
things might have prevented it and could prevent it from happening to even one more of our judges.''
An unemployed electrician, Bart Ross, admitted to the Feb. 28 murder of Lefkow's family members before he
committed suicide in March. DNA tests have also linked him to the Chicago-area crime, which Lefkow said happened ''for no
reason other than that they were in his way on his road to murder me.''
She found the bodies, shot to death, when she returned home at 5:30 p.m. that night. She said, ''2/28 is
our own personal 9/11.''
In addition to asking lawmakers to ''publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary,''
Lefkow called on Congress to increase funding for the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects judges. She also wants legislation
to ban putting personal information about judges and other government officials on the Internet without their permission.
In recent months, several Republican members of Congress have lashed out at judges involved in the Terri
Schiavo case and others. Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, died after her feeding tube was removed, her parents' legal
challenges unsuccessful.
Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said, ''The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme
Court are unconscionable''...
''Whether liberal or conservative, I have never encountered a judge in the federal judiciary who can remotely
be described as posing a threat, as Mr. Robertson said,'' she said...
In a bill signed into law by President Bush last week, Congress approved $12 million to install home security
systems for the 2,200 active and semiretired judges and magistrates in the federal court system.
Lefkow had the support of her family in Washington Wednesday -- four of her five daughters were at the hearing,
some chuckling when Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made reference to their mother's habit of cooking elaborate meals to accommodate
their conflicting tastes.
More poignantly, Lefkow said, ''I am the wife who wakes up in the middle of the morning, not to a cup of
coffee presented by my husband of 30 years to reopen what we called 'the endless conversation of marriage,' but to an open
book that I was reading in an effort to banish the memories of 5:30 p.m. on the day that changed our world forever.''
