“Pizzas Sent to Judges’ Homes in Name of Judge’s Murdered Son”

“Have you no sense of decency?” This question was posed by Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, to “Senator” Joe McCarthy of the House Unamerican Activities Committee (“HUAC”) during a Senate hearing in 1954.  For those too young to know, HUAC operated during the “Red Scare.”

McCarthy “bullied, lied, and smeared his way to power, destroying many careers and lives in the process.” “Have you no sense of decency?” Sen. Joseph McCarthy is asked in hearing | June 9, 1954 | HISTORY.

However, “McCarthy made a crucial mistake. He charged in early 1954 that the U.S. Army was ‘soft’ on communism.”  Id.

At a central moment in the hearing, when McCarthy smeared a young lawyer, Mr. Welch said:

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness….  Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”

Id. (emphasis added). What followed?

The audience of citizens and newspaper and television reporters burst into wild applause. Just a week later, the hearings into the Army came to a close. McCarthy, exposed as a reckless bully, was officially condemned by the U.S. Senate for contempt against his colleagues in December 1954. During the next two-and-a-half years McCarthy spiraled into alcoholism. Still in office, he died in 1957.

Id.

We need Joseph N. Welch today.  In fact, we need a lot of him.

Suzanne Monyak reports that Pizzas Sent to Judges’ Homes in Name of Judge’s Murdered Son (Bloomberg Law Apr. 15, 2025).

Hundreds of pizzas have been delivered to the homes of judges and their adult children amid increasing threats to the judiciary, including some sent in the name of a New Jersey federal judge’s murdered son. [emphasis added].

Speaking of her late son, Daniel, the Hon. Esther Salas was quoted in the Bloomberg article:

“Now Daniel’s name is being weaponized to bring fear to judges and their children,” she said during the event. “You’re saying to those judges, you want to end up like Judge Salas? You want to end up like Judge Salas’ son? These are alarming developments.”

Salas said in an interview that at least 10 pizzas have been sent to federal judges and their relatives, with her son’s name listed as the sender. These deliveries have been made across the US , including in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Los Angeles, she said.

More – much more – needs to be done.  See, for example: Maryland Passes “Watered-Down Judicial Security Bill” (Apr. 12, 2025).

To the pizza senders: “Have you no sense of decency?” Sending pizzas in the name of a murdered son is beyond indecent.  Threatening judges and their families is an attack on the rule of law.

David F. Levi wrote:

In the end, when facing the unrelenting threats — some big and obvious, some small and insidious — to the rule of law and an independent judiciary, it will be the strong culture of the judiciary and the support of our citizens that will see us through. Or not. There are no guarantees of success in this struggle. It must constantly be renewed, in every generation. As my father once put it in a farewell address to the Department of Justice during equally querulous and divisive times, the rule of law “can never be won for all time. [It] must always be won anew.”

The Rule of Law “Must Always Be Won Anew” (2023).

For additional blogs on the importance of an independent, secure judiciary, please see Protecting the Judiciary – Bolch Judicial Institute – E-Discovery LLC  (Mar. 23, 2025), and blogs cited in that post, including Maryland’s Protection of the Judiciary (Apr. 10, 2024),  Maryland Bills to Protect Judges and Their Children (Feb. 23, 2024), and, Md. lawmakers pass bill to protect judges’ personal information after fatal shooting (Daily Record Apr. 9, 2024).

Photo from Joseph Nye Welch | United States army counsel | Britannica