Chief Justice John Roberts has warned that personal attacks on Supreme Court justices and lower court judges are ‘dangerous’ and have ‘got to stop’.
The conservative judge, speaking at an event at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston on Tuesday, said that criticisms of opinions are expected.
‘But personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop,’ he said.
Roberts’ statement was widely interpreted as a thinly-veiled rebuke of Donald Trump who launched a ferocious barrage at the Supreme Court over its tariff ruling on Sunday night.
The Chief Justice was answering a question from US District Judge Lee Rosenthal who asked to what extent the criticism the Supreme Court ‘came with the territory.’
Roberts said that there was often dissenting opinions among the justices themselves and that it was ‘important’ that their decisions were ‘subjected to scrutiny.’
But he warned that the criticism could shift from ‘legal analysis to personalities’ and when this happens the result could be ‘frankly, quite dangerous.’
Rosenthal, a George H. W. Bush appointee, thanked Roberts on behalf of lower court judges, saying ‘we always know that you have our backs, and that means a great deal.’
Trump singled out two of his own appointees, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, saying that they had ‘gone out of their way’ to oppose him with ‘bad and wrongful rulings,’ in his Truth Social tirade against the tariff decision.
Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as he arrives to deliver his State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24
Trump greets Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ahead of the State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24
Cabinet members US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett listen as US President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24
