Wisconsin Chief Justice Warns of Rise of Political Violence
Karofsky says that safety within the court system 's an issue that transcends partisan politics.'
Jill Karofsky. Photo courtesy of Jill Karofsky’s campaign.
Days after a man was charged with stalking her, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Jill Karofsky told a forum in Madison that political violence is “on the rise.”
Speaking at a luncheon hosted by WisPolitics Thursday, Karofsky said that safety within the court system “is an issue that transcends partisan politics.”
On Tuesday, a Racine man was arraigned on charges that he had repeatedly threatened Karofsky directly, and through the Office of Lawyer Regulation. The threats were so persistent that Karofsky said she felt afraid and requested a police presence while attending sporting events.
That incident is part of an increasing trend of violence and threats against judges across the country. According to data from the U.S. Marshals Service, threats against federal judges more than doubled between 2021 and 2023. In July, lawmakers in Congress introduced a bipartisan bill to increase safety for judicial officers in state and local courts.
And in Wisconsin, “credible, identified threats” against judges were nearly as numerous in the first three months of 2025 as they were for the entirety of 2024.
Karofsky said that, anecdotally, she has experienced an increase in threats since she joined the high court in 2020, and has heard of similar experiences from other judges across the state.
“I think that a lot of them happened in the wake of the 2020 election, and they have continued. We get many, many threats,” she said. “I would say that in the past few weeks, I have talked to three or four of my colleagues about specific threats, and that’s on the Supreme Court. I’ve also talked to many Circuit Court judges who are also facing threats.”
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky, right, addresses a luncheon hosted by WisPolitics in Madison, Wis., on Oct. 23, 2025. Anya van Wagtendonk/WPR
Recent efforts to ramp up security for Wisconsin Supreme Court justices failed in the state Legislature. Republican lawmakers this summer rejected a request from the court and endorsed by Gov. Tony Evers to spend $1 million on a special security force for the high court. Republican leadership at the time said that State Capitol police protect everyone in the building, including justices.
The high court had previously requested more security in 2023, under the leadership of then-Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, a conservative, after a retired Juneau County Circuit Court Judge was murdered in his home.
On Thursday, Karofsky praised the Capitol Police, and said that four members provide security for judges and justices. She said Evers paid for the officers using federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Protection Act. That funding is set to run out at the end of next August.
“I do think that we will be able to get continued funding for those positions through the biennium, so that we continue to have security,” Karofsky said.
Understanding, if not agreement
Karofsky, who took the mantle of chief justice on July 1, has been on the court as it underwent a seismic shift from a longstanding conservative majority to a 4-3 liberal majority, of which she is a member.
Voters “wanted a court that was going to base decisions on the rule of law,” she said.
Both liberals and conservatives have made that argument in each of the last two high-profile, high-cost supreme court elections. The back-and-forth is likely to play out again this spring, as both sides vie for a seat being vacated by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley.
Bradley herself has been highly critical of the court’s liberal turn, saying in August that she would not seek reelection because she wanted to “rebuild the conservative movement” elsewhere.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Brian Hagedorn, left, and Jill Karofsky, right, sit together during Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz’s investiture Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
But on Thursday, Karofsky said that, despite fiery words in the pages of some decisions, the court is cordial.
“I don’t think that my job is to try to always change the minds of everyone I come in contact with,” she said. “I just try to reason, to understand where people are coming from. I don’t have to agree with them. I just need to understand.”
And she said that all her colleagues “show up for oral argument ready to do the work.”
“It would be really weird for us to be in a room debating the toughest issues of the day and not … feel something about those,” she said. “But for the most part, we’re leaving those feelings in our opinions.”
Wisconsin Chief Justice Jill Karofsky: Political violence is on the rise was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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