Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts: Courts' independence under threat from violence

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts warned Tuesday that the independence of the federal courts is under threat from "illegitimate activity," raising concerns about violence and intimidation against judges, disinformation and possible defiance of court opinions.

Roberts’ year-end report came after another tumultuous year for the Supreme Court in which the justices issued controversial decisions about President-elect Donald Trump and other high-profile issues. The justices also continued to battle low approval ratings and calls for ethics reform. More Americans have disapproved than approved of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job in surveys by Gallup since September 2021.

Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s comment in 2004 that criticism of judges had dramatically increased in recent years is “just as true, if not more so, today,” Roberts wrote.

“Unfortunately, not all actors engage in `informed criticism’ or anything remotely resembling it,” Roberts said.

Roberts decried the volume of hostile threats and communications directed at judges, which has more than tripled over the past decade, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. More than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges have been investigated in the past five years, and about 50 people have been criminally charged.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett disclosed this year that she has worn a bulletproof vest, though she did not detail the reasons for it.

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The chief justice called out court critics who publicize judges’ addresses and phone numbers so they can be harassed.

In June 2022, a California man who allegedly made threats against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was arrested near the justice's suburban Washington, D.C., home while armed with a gun and knife.

Roberts also criticized public officials he said have tried to intimidate judges by suggesting political bias is behind their decisions.

“Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others,” he wrote.

What public officials don’t have the right to do, he said, is defy court opinions.

“Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings,” Roberts said, without giving examples.

Some court watchers have drawn attention to a comment Vice President-elect JD Vance made in a 2022 podcast interview, suggesting Trump shouldn’t let himself be constrained by the courts if he became president again.

Democrats who have pushed for changes to the Supreme Court – including term limits for justices ? have been accused by critics of being motivated by partisanship because of the court’s conservative supermajority. In July, President Joe Biden called for major changes, saying, "Extremism is undermining the public's confidence in the court's decisions."

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In May, Roberts rebuffed Senate Democrats’ request to meet to discuss ethics questions swirling around the court after media reports that flags associated with the "Stop the Steal" movement flew from Justice Samuel Alito’s homes in Virginia and New Jersey.

Democrats complain the ethics code the court adopted in 2023 after reports of lavish trips Justice Clarence Thomas accepted from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow does not include an enforcement mechanism.

“The highest court in the land can’t have the lowest ethical standards," Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in releasing his final report on the court in December. "So long as Chief Justice Roberts and the Judicial Conference refuse to act, we must push for a legislative solution to this crisis to restore trust in the highest court.”

Roberts did not address any of Democrats' proposed changes. But he began his report recounting how King George III stripped lifetime appointments from judicial officers in 1761, an order that was not well received by the colonists. The independent federal judiciary the Founding Fathers created is one of the “crown jewels of our system of government,” Roberts said, again quoting Rehnquist.

“I urge all Americans,” he wrote, “to appreciate this inheritance from our founding generation and cherish its endurance.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chief Justice Roberts warns about threats to federal judiciary