Chief Justice Roberts: 'Hostility towards judges is dangerous and it’s got to stop'

(The Center Square) – Personal hostility toward judges can be dangerous and has to stop, Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday, when he discussed a range of issues facing the judicial branch at a Rice University Baker Institute of Public Policy event in Houston. 

Speaking with senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Lee Rosenthal, Roberts said judges often face criticism over the decisions they make from the bench.

“Often when any of us issue an opinion, there's often a dissent. You get used to the criticism right away and it can very much be healthy. It's important that our decisions are subjected to scrutiny. The problem, sometimes, is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities,” Roberts said. Criticism doesn’t come from “just any one political perspective,” but “it's more directed in a personal way and that frankly can be actually quite dangerous.

“Judges work very hard to get it right and if they don't, their opinions are subject to criticism,” he said. “But personally directed hostility is dangerous and it's got to stop.”

Rosenthall, trustee emeritus of the Rice University Board of Trustees, said the criticism is “very much part of our lives these days. On behalf of trial judges everywhere, I want to personally thank you. While we know that you may not always agree with us, we always know that you have our backs, and that means a great deal.”

Last year, several Republican U.S. senators filed a bill to increase protections for U.S. Supreme Court justices after threats to judges and Supreme Court justices increased at an unprecedented level under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

In 2022, after a draft decision was leaked in a case before the court to overturn the landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, pro-abortion activists publicized the home addresses of five Republican appointed Justices: Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.

Attacks were made against Thomas, including assassination threats. Thomas warned that the U.S. was “in danger of destroying the institutions that are required for a free society. You can’t have a civil society, a free society without a stable legal system,” The Center Square reported.

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A California man also was accused of devising a plan to break into Kavanaugh’s home and kill him. He was arrested and charged.

Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also verbally threatened Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, which Roberts rebuked, saying his statements were “not only inappropriate, they are dangerous."

Roberts has made similar warnings before. Last July, at a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judicial conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, he said personal criticism of judges “becomes wrapped up in the political dispute that a judge who’s doing his or her job is part of the problem. And the danger, of course, is somebody might pick up on that. And we have had, of course, serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work. So I think the political people on both sides of the aisle need to keep that in mind.”

He reiterated that criticism of judicial decisions should remain focused on legal reasoning. 

“It would be good if people appreciated it’s not the judge’s fault that a correct interpretation of the law meant that, no, you don’t get to do this,” he said. “And it may be an incorrect interpretation. But if that’s their criticism, then, of course, they can explain that, and maybe the court of appeals will take a different view. But if it’s just venting because you lost, then that’s not terribly helpful.”

Roberts spoke at the Houston event at the invitation of his longtime friend, native Houstonian James Baker III. Baker, now 95, previously served as the U.S. secretary of state, secretary of the treasury and White House chief of staff. Roberts first worked with him when he was associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan. 

Roberts was nominated chief justice by President George W. Bush, serving in the role since 2005. He previously served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General.