Justice Kennedy: Judges 'best protected' when public understands their role

LOS ANGELES - From Venezuela to Poland, and South Africa to the United States, judicial leaders convened on Thursday for a virtual forum intended to highlight the risks to judges and judicial independence across the world.

"Peace gives us the opportunity to pursue democracy," retired U.S. Supreme Court justice Anthony M. Kennedy told the forum called: "Speak Up for Justice: Global Risks to Judges and the Urgency to Protect them and the Justice System." But peace, he warned, isn't enough. Without the checks, discipline and dignity of an impartial judiciary, even peace becomes brittle, he said. "Judges are best protected when the public and our nation realize how central they are," Kennedy said.

He stressed the foundational importance of civic education and implored institutions to invest early in constitutional literacy. "Freedom and democracy are taught, and teaching is a conscious act," he said.

Beverly Hills trial attorney Paul Kiesel of Kiesel Law LLP moderated the event.

"When we speak about judicial independence, we are speaking about the health of democracy itself," Kiesel said. "This is not an abstract debate. It is a reality judges and lawyers are facing every day in courtrooms around the globe."

He said that more than 400 threats had been made against U.S. judges in 2025. "We're going to break records--not in a good way," he added.

Fueling the climate of hostility toward the judiciary in the U.S, he said, was a disinformation campaign that echoed tactics used in Venezuela and Poland. "'Judges are rogue, corrupt, un-American'--sound familiar?" he asked. "This is exactly how authoritarian regimes begin to dismantle the rule of law."

Former Venezuelan judge Eleazar J. Saldivia, who said he fled his home country in 2014 after resisting direct political interference in his courtroom, spoke of watching his country's judiciary fall from within.

"The collapse of Venezuela's judiciary is not just a personal story," he said. "It's a warning."

From 1999 to 2014, judges in Venezuela were fired without due process, replaced by provisional loyalists, and threatened with retaliation, he said. In 2014, Saldivia was sitting on the bench in the state of Anzoátegui when massive student-led protests - known as La Salida - erupted across the nation. The demonstrations were a flashpoint: Thousands of Venezuelans, many of them young, demanded democratic reforms, transparency and an end to the Nicolás Maduro regime's authoritarian rule.

When the first wave of detainees came before his court, Saldivia said he reviewed the evidence - or lack thereof - and found clear constitutional violations. Young protesters were being held without cause, denied due process, and abused in detention, he said, adding that he ordered several of them to be released.

When Saldivia refused to reverse a ruling, he said he received a phone call from Aristóbulo Istúriz, who was then governor of Anzoátegui and one of the most influential figures in Maduro's circle, warning him of "severe consequences." Soon after, the judge said his security detail disappeared.

"We were extremely afraid of the consequences of speaking up," he admitted. "But if I had the chance again, I would have spoken louder, earlier. Judges are the custodians of the Constitution. We cannot remain silent when democracy is under threat."

For Judge Dorota Zabludowska of the Gdańsk-Południe District Court, Saldivia's story was familiar. Since 2015, she said, Poland's Law and Justice Party methodically dismantled judicial oversight: first targeting the Constitutional Tribunal, then controlling prosecutorial appointments, and eventually capturing the National Council of the Judiciary. Judges who resisted were subjected to smear campaigns and disciplinary trials, she said.

"Courts are the last barricade," Zabludowska said. "When they are gone, the people are at the mercy of power."

Zabludowska emphasized that judicial restraint should never mean disengagement. "We are the third power," she said. "That means we are the only ones authorized by the Constitution to check the legislature and the executive. We can't afford to stay silent in our courtrooms or our countries anymore."