Chief justice John Roberts calls for end to ‘dangerous’ hostility toward judges

The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, said on Tuesday that hostility directed in personal terms at judges is “dangerous, and it’s got to stop”.The comment came just days after Donald Trump’s latest social media broadside against judges who have ruled against him and his administration.Roberts did not mention the US president by name in his remarks at an event at Rice University in Houston. But Roberts, who has led the court for more than two decades, said that while criticism of judicial decisions is welcome and often healthy, attacks of a personal nature against judges cross a line.“The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities, and you see … that it’s more directed in a personal way,” Roberts said. “And that, frankly, can be quite dangerous.”He added: “Judges around the country work very hard to get it right. And if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism. But personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop.”Trump and senior members of his Republican administration have heaped scorn on judges who have issued a series of rulings impeding his political agenda since his return to the presidency last year. The president in a social media post on Sunday resumed his criticism of federal judge James Boasberg, based in Washington DC, who last week blocked subpoenas issued in a criminal investigation into the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, pursued by Trump-appointed prosecutor and high-profile political ally Jeanine Pirro.Trump called for Boasberg’s removal from any cases relating to the presidency, adding that the judge should “suffer serious disciplinary action” along with “numerous other corrupt judges”.Trump last year called for Boasberg’s impeachment by Congress and referred to him as “radical left” after Boasberg issued an adverse ruling against the administration that attempted to block the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador because of lack of due process.Roberts then issued a rare rebuke to the president and describe impeachment as “not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.Roberts and the other conservative justices who hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court have sided with Trump in a series of emergency rulings in the past year.The court, however, last month struck down his sweeping global tariffs as unlawful, in a ruling written by Roberts. Trump in his social media post on Sunday renewed his attacks on the six justices who ruled against his imposition of the tariffs under a law meant for national emergencies.Immediately after that ruling, Trump lashed out at those six justices – including two whom he appointed during his first term as president, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett – while hailing the three justices who backed him: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh.“I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, you want to know the truth, the two of them,” Trump said, referring to Gorsuch and Barrett.Trump in those remarks also claimed that the court “has been swayed by foreign interests”, but did not provide any evidence.Roberts in his 2024 end-of-year report said violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments “threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends”.Reuters contributed reporting