Esther Salas
Distinguished Judge and Staunch Advocate for Judicial Security
The Honorable Esther Salas, United States District Court Judge for the District of New Jersey, has long been a trailblazer for women and Latinx lawyers. Receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science from Rutgers College in 1991, she then earned a doctorate of jurisprudence from the School of Law at Rutgers University–Newark and participated in the Minority Student Program there.
After serving as law clerk to Hon. Eugene J. Codey, Jr. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex County, Judge Salas tried criminal cases for the firm of Garces & Grabler. From 1997 to 2006, she served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Newark, representing indigent clients in federal criminal cases. She was elected president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey in 2001 and served on the Governor’s Hispanic Advisory Committee for Policy Development, the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Minority Concerns, and the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts. In 2006, she was appointed United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey, the first Latina to occupy that position. President Barack Obama nominated her to the U.S. District Court, to which she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2011—another first as a Latina.
On July 19, 2020, an anti-feminist attorney who had litigated before Judge Salas murdered her son, Daniel, as he opened the door of the family’s home. Her husband, Mark Anderl, was critically injured in the attack. Out of this tragedy, which drew the country’s attention to the vulnerability of judges and law enforcement officials, Judge Salas led state and national efforts for the bi-partisan Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act of 2021. Friends of Judge Salas created the Daniel Anderl Judicial Protection Project to further the safety, security, and privacy of members of the judicial community and their families, while also creating higher-education scholarships. In 2023, the Daniel Anderl Judicial Protection Project Endowed Scholarship was established at Rutgers School of Criminal Justice. Aligned with this effort, the Rutgers School of Law–Newark Alumni Association spearheaded a campaign to establish the Daniel Anderl Memorial Endowed Scholarship, awarded in alternate years between the law school’s Newark and Camden locations.