Roberts Warns Against Personal Attacks on Judges

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says personal attacks on America's judges are becoming dangerous. Speaking at Rice University on Tuesday, Roberts warned that criticism of judges has shifted from dissecting legal reasoning to targeting individuals, and that the trend carries real risks, NBC News reports. "The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities," he said, adding, "Personally directed hostility is dangerous and has got to stop."

• He did not name names, but his remarks came days after President Trump unleashed another blast at the Supreme Court, calling it "completely inept and embarrassing" and a "weaponized, and unjust Political Organization."

Judges around the country have reported a rise in threats in recent years. While policy and legal critiques "come with the territory," Roberts said, increasingly personal broadsides against judges undermine the system and can fuel anger well beyond political debate. US District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who shared the stage with Roberts at the Rice University event, thanked him, saying, "We always know that you have our backs and that means a great deal," the AP reports. The US Marshals Service reported 564 threats against judges in the fiscal year that ended in September.

Trump has been one of the court's most aggressive recent critics, especially after a 6–3 decision last month striking down his wide-ranging tariffs on foreign imports. In a Truth Social post Sunday, he said the court had "unnecessarily RANSACKED" the country. Roberts was in the majority that ruled against him, along with two of Trump's own appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. After the ruling, Trump said he was "absolutely ashamed" of the justices who ruled against them and called them "very unpatriotic."

In his Truth Social posts on Sunday, Trump also renewed complaints about the court's refusal to back his failed attempts to overturn the 2020 election and separately attacked Washington-based US District Judge James Boasberg as "Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control." Roberts has previously defended Boasberg in a public statement, though some lower-court judges have argued he hasn't gone far enough in publicly shielding the judiciary from escalating attacks.