Florida Man Receives Prison Time For Sending Death Threat To Chief Justice John Roberts

Death threats made against federal judges are on the rise, and even Supreme Courtroom justices have discovered themselves on the receiving finish of those violent messages — together with Chief Justice John Roberts.

Earlier this week, Florida resident Neal Brij Sidhwaney, 43, was sentenced to 14 months in jail after threatening to kill Roberts in a voicemail left for the chief justice on the Supreme Courtroom. In late 2023, Sidhwaney pleaded responsible to transmitting an interstate risk to kill. Reuters has further particulars:

[Sidhwaney] has been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 18, about two weeks after he positioned a name to the Supreme Courtroom on July 21 and left a threatening voice mail for Roberts saying, amongst different issues, “I’ll f—— kill you,” prosecutors stated.

Roberts was not recognized by identify within the indictment, which referred to as him solely “Sufferer 1.” However a court-ordered psychological analysis that was docketed in September earlier than being later sealed recognized Roberts because the risk’s recipient.

Within the analysis, a psychologist famous that Sidhwaney suffered from “delusional dysfunction with psychosis” and had a “paranoid perception system,” even whereas medicated. Sidhwaney’s mom stated that her son writes letters and emails and make cellphone calls after watching the information, which “enrage[s]” him.

Roberts is just not the primary Supreme Courtroom justice to face such threats. In 2022, an armed man was arrested close to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house and later charged with attempting to assassinate Kavanaugh after telling police that he needed to kill him. The excessive courtroom has accordingly requested funding to extend safety for justices and different federal judges because of the rise in these harmful threats.

Man gets 14 months in prison for threat to U.S. Supreme Court’s Roberts [Reuters]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Legislation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be at liberty to email her with any ideas, questions, feedback, or critiques. You possibly can comply with her on X/Twitter and Threads or join along with her on LinkedIn.