Patrick Leahy: “Today, we may finally make progress on security in another important setting by turning to the Court Security…”

“Today, we may finally make progress on security in another important setting by turning to the Court Security Improvement Act of 2007, S. 378. Frankly, this legislation should have been enacted last year but was not. It should not be a struggle to enact these measures to improve court security. We are fortunate that we have not suffered another violent assault on judges and their families. It was 2 years ago when the mother and husband of Judge Joan Lefkow of Chicago were murdered in their home. Judge Lefkow's courageous testimony in our committee hearing in May 2005 is something none of us will forget. We witnessed the horrific violence at the courthouse in Atlanta in which a Georgia State court judge was killed. And then last year there was the violence against a State judge in Nevada.”