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Chief Justice John Roberts warned against personal criticism of federal judges on Tuesday, lamenting what he described as an uptick in “dangerous” and hostile rhetoric just days after President Donald Trump zeroed in on the courts in a lengthy social media tirade.
Speaking publicly at an event hosted by Rice University in Houston, Roberts stressed the difference between criticizing a court order or legal analysis and personally attacking the judge behind it.
“It’s important that our decisions are subjected to scrutiny, and they are,” Roberts said. “The problem is that sometimes the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities. And you see from all over, I mean, not just any one political perspective on it, that it’s more directed in a personal way — and that, frankly, can actually be quite dangerous,” Roberts said.
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“Personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop,” he said.
Roberts stopped short of mentioning Trump by name. Still, the timing of his remarks is significant, and comes two days after Trump assailed federal courts and Supreme Court justices in a string of fiery Truth Social posts Sunday — including the justices who ruled, 6-3, to invalidate his sweeping tariff regime last month.
“Our Country was unnecessarily RANSACKED by the United States Supreme Court, which has become little more than a weaponized and unjust Political Organization,” Trump blared.
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“They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so,” Trump added of the high court, adding: “All I can do, as President, is call them out for their bad behavior!”
Roberts used his Tuesday remarks to pour cold water on the notion that the justices do the political bidding of the presidents who appointed them, noting that it was then-President George W. Bush who nominated him to the high court 20 years prior.
“The idea that I’m carrying out his agenda somehow is absurd,” Roberts said Tuesday.
“Certainly, I’ll always be grateful [to] President Bush for appointing me, and I’m sure all my colleagues are grateful there,” he added.
“But the idea that I’m carrying out, and they are carrying out, some different agendas is, I think, really fallacious.”
Tuesday’s event is not the first time Roberts has used his post to urge Trump, or other political figures, to dial back the rhetoric against the justices or lower court judges on the district or appellate level.
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Roberts last March issued a rare public statement rebuking Trump’s calls to impeach a federal juge in D.C. who issued a temporary order seeking to halt, for 14 days, the president’s use of an 18th century wartime immigration law to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly castigated federal court judges who have blocked or paused the president’s biggest executive orders from taking force, branding them as “activist” judges — though the description has prompted concern from outside court watchers and former federal judges, who have pointed to a broader uptick in threats against federal judges.
Roberts alluded to this view in his remarks Tuesday. “Judges around the country work very hard to get it right, and if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism,” Roberts added. “But personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop.”
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