Social media has been flooded with death threats against Colorado Supreme Court justices since they ruled 4-3 this week to kick Donald Trump off the state's GOP primary ballot, according to a report from Advance Democracy. The nonpartisan research group says some users have posted the phone numbers and office addresses of justices, NBC News reports. Some of the posts include fantasies about what methods could be used to kill the judges. "Kill judges. Behead judges. Roundhouse kick a judge into the concrete," a post on what NBC describes as a "fringe website" says. "Slam dunk a judge's baby into the trashcan."
Advance Democracy founder Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI intelligence analyst, tells NBC that the group is "seeing significant violent language and threats being made against the Colorado justices" and others seen to be behind the ruling. He says the "normalization" of violent rhetoric is concerning, as is the failure of social media platforms to take action. "Trump's statements, which have sought to delegitimize and politicize the actions of the courts, is serving as a key driver of the violent rhetoric," says Jones, who urges leaders "on both sides of the political aisle" to condemn calls for violence.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold tells the Huffington Post that she didn't file the case but she's received hundreds of threats. "Within three weeks of it being filed, I received 64 death threats and over 900 non-lethal threats of abuse," the Democrat says. "I stopped counting after that." Griswold says she's "extremely concerned" about violence from Trump supporters in response to the ruling. The US Supreme Court is widely expected to reverse the Colorado ruling. Griswold says she'll certify ballots according to whatever court decision prevails, though she agrees with the Colorado court's ruling. "The provision in the Constitution to stop insurrectionists from holding office is there for a reason," she says. (More Colorado stories.)
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