Supreme Court restores access to mail-order abortion pills
The Supreme Court has restored access to mail-order abortion pills while hearing Louisiana’s challenge to FDA rules on abortion pills.
HERSHEY, Pa., May 6 – Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday expressed concern about the public’s perception of the Supreme Court as an institution driven primarily by political results rather than law, as some prominent voices question the legitimacy of the highest judicial body.
Roberts, who has led the court since 2005, appears to acknowledge the tepid public support for the court shown in public opinion polls over the past few years, as the conservative majority continues to move U.S. law dramatically to the right.
“At a very basic level, people think we are making policy decisions,” Roberts told an audience of judges, lawyers and law students.
“I think they see us as a purely political actor, and I don’t think that’s an accurate understanding of what we do,” Roberts said.
Roberts, who was appointed chief justice by former Republican President George W. Bush, is seen as deeply conservative, but he also has concerns about the court’s institutional credibility and public perception.
The current 6-3 conservative majority was established in 2020, when Republican President Donald Trump appointed his third justice to a lifetime position on the high court. Since then, it has handed down landmark decisions rolling back abortion rights and racially conscious affirmative action, expanding gun rights, expanding religious rights, restricting transgender rights, and limiting federal regulatory power.
Another landmark ruling last week watered down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for minorities to challenge racially discriminatory electoral maps based on historic civil rights laws. The ruling was a victory for the Louisiana Republican Party and the Trump administration.
Roberts’ 2024 ruling granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution in his efforts to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, strengthening his efforts to regain the presidency by effectively delaying a trial that ultimately never took place.
Since Mr. Trump returned to office last year, courts have repeatedly taken emergency measures to allow his wide-ranging executive actions to take effect even while legal challenges are pending. In one setback for Mr. Trump, the court in February struck down Mr. Trump’s signature global tariffs issued under a law intended for use in national emergencies in a separate ruling authored by Mr. Roberts.
On Wednesday, Roberts was interviewed on stage by a federal judge and asked how the court was being misled. Judges are “simply not part of the political process,” Roberts said, adding, “I don’t know if the public understands that to the right degree.”
Justice Kagan’s concerns
In 2022, Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal members, said the court’s legitimacy could be at risk if Americans began to see the justices as trying to impose their personal preferences on society. Kagan said that “a court is legitimate when it functions like a court” by respecting past precedent and not claiming authority to make political or policy decisions.
“The problem arises when courts become an extension of the political process, when people see them as just trying to impose their personal preferences on society without regard to the law,” Kagan said.
The Biden administration has lost ground on several key Supreme Court decisions and has proposed sweeping changes to the court in 2024, including an 18-year term limit for judges and a binding code of conduct.
“We need these reforms to restore trust in our courts,” Biden said. He added at the time that it had been “weaponized by those seeking to implement extreme policies for decades to come.”
Amid Republican opposition, Biden’s proposal went nowhere in Congress.
Other Democrats and some legal scholars have expressed similar concerns. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) criticized the “unjust majority of extremist U.S. Supreme Court justices,” referring to conservative judges in 2024.
personal attack
Roberts on Wednesday reiterated concerns about personal attacks and hostility toward the justices. Roberts said criticism of the ruling is legitimate, but criticizing the judge himself is not.
“As soon as that happens, it’s not appropriate and can lead to very serious problems,” Roberts said.
Roberts did not mention Trump by name. The president launched a verbal attack on the judiciary in response to a ruling that impeded his policies.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly been asked to rule on cases involving President Trump’s expansive views on executive powers. Decisions are expected by late June on additional major cases involving President Trump, including the firing of Federal Reserve President Lisa Cook and restrictions on birthright citizenship.
President Trump has criticized Roberts and the five other justices who ruled against him on the tariff issue, making baseless claims that the court is influenced by foreign interests. President Trump criticized two of the three conservative judges he appointed during his first term, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, calling the decision a “disgrace to our family.”
