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Chief Justice John Roberts warned against personal criticism of federal judges Tuesday, lamenting what he described as an uptick in “dangerous” and hostile rhetoric just days after President Donald Trump zeroed in on the courts in a lengthy social media tirade.
Speaking publicly at an event hosted by Rice University in Houston, Roberts stressed the difference between criticizing a court order or legal analysis and personally attacking the judge behind it.
“It’s important that our decisions are subjected to scrutiny, and they are,” Roberts said.
“The problem is that sometimes the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities. And you see from all over, I mean, not just any one political perspective on it, that it’s more directed in a personal way. And that, frankly, can actually be quite dangerous.”
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“It’s part of our lives these days,” said U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who conducted the conversation with Roberts. “We always know that you have our backs and that means a great deal,” she told the chief justice.
Roberts stopped short of mentioning Trump by name. Still, the timing of his remarks is significant and comes two days after Trump assailed federal courts and Supreme Court justices in a string of fiery Truth Social posts Sunday, including the justices who ruled, 6-3, to invalidate his sweeping tariff regime last month.
“Our Country was unnecessarily RANSACKED by the United States Supreme Court, which has become little more than a weaponized and unjust Political Organization,” Trump blared.
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“They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so. All I can do, as President, is call them out for their bad behavior!”
Roberts used his remarks Tuesday to pour cold water on the notion that the justices do the political bidding of the presidents who appointed them, noting President George W. Bush nominated him to the high court 20 years earlier.
“The idea that I’m carrying out his agenda somehow is absurd,” Roberts said Tuesday.
“Certainly, I’ll always be grateful [to] President Bush for appointing me, and I’m sure all my colleagues are grateful there,” he added.
“But the idea that I’m carrying out, and they are carrying out, some different agendas is, I think, really fallacious.”
Tuesday’s event was not the first time Roberts has used his post to urge Trump or other political figures to dial back the rhetoric against the justices or lower court judges on the district or appellate level.
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The U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees judicial security, reported 564 threats in the annual period ending in September, an increase from the previous fiscal year. A California man was sentenced to prison last year for attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home in 2022.
That was just before the high court issued its controversial ruling striking down Roe v. Wade and the nationwide constitutional right to abortion. The decision led to months of protests outside several justices’ homes, as well as unspecified online threats.
Roberts has spoken out on the issue before. Last March, he issued a rare public statement rebuking Trump’s calls to impeach a federal juge in D.C. who issued a temporary order seeking to halt, for 14 days, the president’s use of an 18th century wartime immigration law to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly castigated federal court judges who have blocked or paused the president’s biggest executive orders from taking force, branding them as “activist” judges. Though that description has prompted concern from outside court watchers and former federal judges, who have pointed to a broader uptick in threats against federal judges.
Roberts alluded to this view in his remarks Tuesday.
“Judges around the country work very hard to get it right, and if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism,” Roberts added. “But personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”
Several judges have recently raised concerns about security, after the Trump administration lost several legal challenges to the president’s executive actions. Trump had criticized some of those rulings, and said some judges should be impeached.
At a semi-annual meeting of the federal judiciary chaired by Roberts last year, Judge Richard Sullivan urged full funding and staffing for the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for federal judges, as Trump has launched mass cuts to the federal workforce.
“We need to make sure that the resources are in place to keep judges safe, to keep courthouses safe. I mean, we haven’t recently had attacks on courthouses, but that has happened in the not-too-distant past, and that is a concern,” he said, citing the 2020 case of a disgruntled litigant who shot to death the son of federal Judge Esther Salas at her home, and wounded her husband.
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