Chief Justice John Roberts decried personal attacks on himself and his fellow justices as the Supreme Court faces backlash surrounding a recent gerrymandering decision.
The comments came after the high court ruled 6-3 that race-based redistricting was unconstitutional, finding that Louisiana’s second black-majority congressional district was created in violation of the Constitution and the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the landmark case Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling has sparked renewed redistricting efforts across several Southern states, including South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Roberts, however, said during a judicial conference on Wednesday that the high court stands above politics, without mentioning the recent ruling.
“I think [people] view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do,” Roberts said. “Certainly, those aspects are open to debate, and people should talk about them, but we’re not simply part of the political process, and there’s a reason for that, and I’m not sure people grasp that as much as is appropriate.”
Roberts said criticism of the courts becomes dangerous when it shifts from legal disagreement to personal attacks on judges.
“I think considered criticism is a very good thing,” the chief justice said. “You hope it’s intelligent criticism, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a free country, and I certainly don’t object to it, and I don’t think my colleagues do either.”
“On the other hand … there is a point where it changes from criticism of the opinion to criticism of the judge, and it can lead to some very serious problems,” Roberts said. “As soon as you personalize, it can become problematic.”
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Earlier this year, the court issued a decision that rolled back President Donald Trump’s tariff efforts.
After the decision, Trump took to social media, calling the court “inept and embarrassing” on Truth Social and accusing the dissenting judges of “openly disrespecting the presidents who appointed them.”
“There’s a lot of hostility that’s publicized about judicial decisions and which judge wrote those decisions,” Roberts said. “I think we have to be a little more careful and make sure people, to the extent you can, are more careful about that.”