‘It’s Got to Stop!’ Chief Justice John Roberts Slams ‘Personally Directed Hostility’ Towards Judges — Amid Bevy of Trump Attacks

Screenshot via C-Span

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts slammed “personally directed hostility” toward judges — amid a bevy of personal attacks by President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Roberts spoke at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Interviewer Lee H. Rosenthal, Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and Trustee Emeritus of the Rice University Board of Trustees, asked Roberts how he handles criticism.

“In your 2024 year-end report on the judiciary, you wrote that, ‘Criticism comes with the territory for judges and justices’ and that ‘it can be healthy,'” Rosenthal quoted. “You’ve talked about the criticisms your predecessors encountered. How do you handle criticism of your court or your opinions today?”

Although the criticism does “come with the territory,” Roberts explained to Rosenthal the nature of the criticism matters.

“You get used to the criticism right away,” he said. “And it can very much be healthy. We don’t believe that we are flawless in any way. It’s important that our decisions are subjected to scrutiny, and they are. The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities, and you see from all over, not just any one political perspective on it, that it’s more directed in a personal way, and that frankly can be actually quite dangerous.”

Roberts did not call out any specific criticism but emphasized that it’s imperative such personal attacks end.

“Judges around the country 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.”

The comments come just two days after Trump’s latest attack on the high court.  The president — in a late-night tirade on Truth Social — went off the Court and its “highly politicized” judiciary.

In the post, he raged against “the horrible job” done by Fed chair Jerome Powell and the “Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control” Judge James Boasberg. He further insisted he has the “absolute right” to impose tariffs despite a February Supreme Court ruling that struck down on swaths of those tariffs and his administration’s trade policy.

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