Chief justice John Roberts calls for end to ‘dangerous’ hostility toward judges | John Roberts
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday that personal hostility toward judges is “dangerous and must stop.”
The comment comes just days after Donald Trump’s latest statement on social media against judges who ruled against him and his administration.
Roberts did not mention the US president’s name in his speech at an event held at Rice University in Houston. But Roberts, who has presided over the court for more than 20 years, said criticism of judicial decisions was welcome and generally healthy, but attacks of a personal nature on the justices crossed the line.
“The problem is sometimes the criticism moves away from focusing on legal analysis to personalities, and you see the criticism is more directed in a personal direction,” Roberts said. “And frankly that can be quite dangerous.”
He added: “Judges up and down the country are working hard to fix this. If they don’t their opinions are subject to criticism. But personally directed hostility is dangerous and must stop.”
Trump and senior members of his Republican administration have disparaged judges who have issued a series of rulings that have disrupted his political agenda since his return to the presidency last year. In a social media post Sunday, the president continued his criticism of Washington, D.C.-based federal judge James Boasberg, who last week blocked subpoenas issued as part of a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who is being pursued by Trump-appointed prosecutor and high-profile political ally Jeanine Pirro.
Trump called for Boasberg to be removed from all presidential-related cases, adding that the judge should be “subject to serious disciplinary action” along with “numerous other corrupt judges.”
Last year, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment by Congress and referred to him as a “radical leftist” after Boasberg ruled unfavorably against the administration for trying to block the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador due to a lack of due process.
Roberts then issued a rare rebuke to the president, describing impeachment as “not an appropriate response to the disagreement over the judicial decision.”
Roberts and other conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority on the high court, sided with Trump in a series of emergency decisions last year.
But last month, in a decision written by Roberts, the court struck down Roberts’ sweeping global tariffs as illegal. In a social media post on Sunday, Trump renewed his attacks on the six judges who ruled against imposing tariffs under a national emergency law.
Immediately following this decision, Trump attacked the six justices he appointed during his first term, including Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, and saluted the three justices who supported him: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh.
“I think it’s a shame for their families, you want to know the truth for both of them,” Trump said, referring to Gorsuch and Barrett.
In his remarks, Trump also claimed that the court was “guided by foreign interests” but did not provide any evidence.
In his 2024 year-end report, Roberts said violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully given decisions “threaten the independence of judges on whom the rule of law depends.”
Reuters contributed reporting
