Judges faced threats this decade on at least three fronts: politics, pay and even physical safety.

Politically, the phrase “activist judges” was a rallying cry for the right. The uproar seemed to peak after the death of Terri Schiavo in March 2005 when then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said Congress should consider impeaching federal judges who declined to intervene in Schiavo’s case despite a swiftly enacted law designed to encourage exactly that.