Alaska man arrested after threatening to kill U.S. Supreme Court justices

A 76-year-old man from Anchorage, Alaska was arrested Wednesday after sending more than 450 messages to the U.S. Supreme Court, some of which threatened to kill six of the justices along with some of their family members, officials say.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, was arrested on Wednesday after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with 9 counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce.

According to the indictment, Anastasiou sent at least 465 messages through the court’s public website between March 10, 2023, and July 16, 2024. Starting on January 4 of this year, the messages allegedly began to escalate to threatening harm.

“The messages contained violent, racist and homophobic rhetoric coupled with threats of assassination by torture, hanging and firearms,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska said in a statement.

Court documents show that the messages targeted six of the justices on the bench, though their names were not publicly released. The court is currently composed of 9 justices, of which 6 are conservative.

“Some of these threats were intended to intimidate Supreme Court Justices 1-6 and retaliate against them for official actions Supreme Court Justices 1-6 had taken in their official capacity as federal justices,” the indictment said.

In some of the messages, Anastasiou threatened to lynch, hang or behead the justices.

If convicted, Anastasiou faces up to 10 years in prison for each count of making threats and up to 5 years in prison for each count of making threats in interstate commerce. In total, that’s up to 155 years in prison, though actual sentences are typically much lower.