A group representing more than 2,000 attorneys sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to support a bill that would beef up security for federal judges.

“On a regular basis, judges are interacting personally with the fiercest criminal enterprises as well as highly emotional personal matters of civil law,” wrote Federal Bar Council President Jonathan M. Moses in an Aug. 22 letter sent to every member of Congress in New York, Vermont and Connecticut who had not already signaled support for the measure. “For judges and their families, better security is a matter of life and death.”