Tippecanoe County Superior Court judge Meyer and his wife were attacked at their home on Sunday
The American Bar Association has called on the US House of Representatives to pass the Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act (S.2379) following the recent shooting of Tippecanoe County Superior Court judge Steven P. Meyer.
Meyer and his wife Kimberly were shot at their home in Lafayette on Sunday afternoon. Steven Meyer’s arm was injured in the attack, while Kimberly sustained a hip injury according to CNN.
As of Monday, the couple was in stable condition. A motive for the attack has not been established.
Indiana Supreme Court chief justice Loretta H. Rush wrote an open letter to state judges that called for vigilance.
“As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable,” Rush wrote in a snippet of the letter published by CNN.
Under the bipartisan Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center would be established to ensure the safety of state and local judges as well as court staff through providing technical assistance, training and tracking threats, and addressing the importance of combining state resources.
The bill was unanimously approved and passed by the US Senate in November.
The ABA pointed out that 2,256 threats had been issued against federal judges since 2022, per the US Marshals Service. State judges in Maricopa County, Arizona faced over 400 serious threats between 2020-2023.
The association's president, Michelle A. Behnke, said in a statement that judges were encountering an “unprecedented level of attacks and threats.”
“No judge should feel threatened because they did their job and made a ruling. Justice and democracy cannot operate if decisions are influenced by a judge’s concern over their safety or the safety of their families,” Behnke said.
