Alaska man indicted over threats to torture and kill Supreme Court justices

By 
 September 19, 2024

America's highest judicial body has ruled on a number of controversial cases in recent years, something which seems to have brought a growing tide of hate.

The latest example of that phenomenon came this week when an Alaska man was arrested for allegedly threatening six of the nine Supreme Court justices. 

Man accused of sending mover 465 messages

According to Fairbanks' KTVF-11,  76-year-old Anchorage resident Panos Anastasiou was taken into custody on Wednesday after being indicted by a federal grand jury.

Prosecutors contend that Anastasiou sent over 465 messages to the Supreme Court between March 10, 2023, and July 16, 2024 via a public website.

The accused is said to have used racist and homophobic rhetoric as well as threatening to inflict torture, hanging, and gunshot wounds on the justices.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland addressed Anastasiou charges in a statement on Thursday, asserting that he "made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with."

Bail revoked for defendant who wanted justice's throat cut

"Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear," the attorney general continued.

"Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families," Garland added.

Anastasiou's indictment came roughly five weeks after CBS News reported that January 6 defendant Bradley Scott Nelson's bail was revoked over comments that he made.

Specifically, Nelson is alleged to have publicly wished that Justice Amy Coney Barrett's throat would be cut from "from ear to ear."

He was reportedly angered by her decision to dissent in Fischer v. U.S, a case in which the majority found that a law passed following the Enron financial scandal could not be used against most January 6 defendants.

California man charged with plotting to killed Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Barrett is not the only justice to be singled out, as a man was charged in June of 2022 with plotting to murder fellow Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

As Fox News reported at the time, 26-year-old Californian Nicholas John Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh's Maryland home with a collection of weapons.

These included a knife, a handgun, ammunition, zip ties, pepper spray, and duct tape. Roske told police that he planned to murder Kavanagh in retaliation for the justice having voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson