“Hostility directed at individuals is dangerous,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in his first public appearance since President Trump attacked the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling.
President Trump attacks Supreme Court justices after tariff hit
President Trump has harsh words for some Supreme Court justices following a landmark ruling that overrode the president’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs.
Chief Justice John Roberts has a simple but powerful message about attacks on the judiciary.
“Personal hostilities are dangerous and must stop,” Roberts said on March 17 in a rare public appearance, his first since a court last month overturned President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The chief justice’s comments during an appearance at Rice University also came days after President Trump continued to make broadsides against the courts that ruled against him.
“This totally incompetent and embarrassing court is nothing like the Supreme Court of the United States that our nation’s great founders established,” President Trump said on social media on March 15.
In introducing Roberts, David M. Satterfield, president of the Baker Institute, called the chief justice “a thoughtful voice in a sea of social media and political agitation, too often coming from the most senior levels of the executive branch itself.”
However, Roberts was not asked directly about Trump’s comments during his conversation with U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal.
Instead, Rosenthal asked questions generally about how to deal with criticism.
As before, Roberts said the court’s decision should be scrutinized.
“Sometimes the problem is that the focus of criticism shifts from legal analysis to individuals,” he said.
Roberts added that attacks can come from “anywhere” and are not limited to one “political viewpoint.”
But his comments came after President Trump criticized not only the Customs Court ruling but also the specific votes of two of the three judges he nominated, Justices Neil Ghosh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Hours after the decision, President Trump called Gorsuch and Barrett’s votes against tariffs a “disgrace to our family.”
In a March 15 social media post, President Trump complained that judges appointed by Republican presidents “openly disrespect” the president and go out of their way to prove their independence.
“All I can do as president is condemn their bad behavior!” he wrote.
President Trump previously complained that courts “will find a way to reach the wrong conclusion” about his executive order ending birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States, and the case was argued in April.
A decision is pending on Mr. Trump’s efforts to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board and exercise control over other independent institutions.
When asked if there were any serious misconceptions about the court, Roberts brought up the idea that he and other justices are representing the presidents who are on the court.
“The idea that we take on the opinions of the people who appointed us is ridiculous,” he said. “History is full of examples of presidents appointing people and being really surprised by the results.”
