‘This is where we are’: Federal Judge Ana Reyes reports death threats to her family amid Trump attacks

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes has demanded that the Trump administration explain its treatment of transgender troops and account for its actions in court. On Monday, during a dispute over a Washington golf course, she described another consequence of her work. She’s receiving death threats.“This is where we are,” Reyes said, according to The Washington Post. “A federal judge is getting death threats over a golf course. I really don’t think that’s what the founders envisioned.”Reyes, an out lesbian appointed by President Joe Biden, said her mother and brother had contacted her about reports of threats. She also referenced disturbing emails and voicemails. Earlier that day, President Donald Trump called her a “crazed lunatic” and questioned whether she “may be insane.”Her disclosure places the confrontation over East Potomac Golf Links within a broader crisis of judicial intimidation, one that has brought threats to judges’ doorsteps.Related: Trump's Justice Department files complaint about lesbian judge hearing trans military caseWhen threats reach homeIn July 2020, a gunman posing as a delivery driver attacked the New Jersey home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. He killed her 20-year-old son, Daniel Anderl, and wounded her husband, Mark Anderl. The attacker, lawyer Roy Den Hollander, had appeared before Salas.Judges have since received unsolicited pizza deliveries at their homes, sometimes ordered in Daniel’s name. They interpret the deliveries as warnings that someone knows where they live, with the murdered young man’s name underscoring the threat.U.S. District Judge Mark Norris, a Trump appointee in Tennessee, described receiving such a delivery during a March forum, Reuters reported.Reyes has previously described threats calling for her to be lynched and shot.“What’s most problematic is that the extraordinary has become ordinary,” she said during a March panel, according to the American Bar Association.Related: Pete Hegse