Chief Justice John Roberts spoke with law students in Washington on Monday and described the rule of law as “endangered” and warned against “trashing the justices.” He didn’t name names.
What if some deserve trashing? He doesn’t include that when he speaks.
How about this clip with Chuckie:
2025: Chuck Schumer says Trump wants to intimidate and threaten judges.
2020: Chuck Schumer tries to intimidate and threaten Justices of the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/FdisnZKk0I
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 27, 2025
“The notion that the rule of law governs is the basic proposition,” Roberts said during an appearance at Georgetown Law. “Certainly as a matter of theory, but also as a matter of practice, we need to stop and reflect every now and then how rare that is, certainly rare throughout history, and rare in the world today.”
We can all agree with Roberts when he blames the schools for not teaching civics and government structure. However, judges shouldn’t be running the country.
“That’s really too bad,” the chief justice told graduating students at the law school. “We’re developing a situation where a whole group of young people is growing up having no real sense about how our system of justice works.”
Roberts suggested some recent verbal attacks on the justices had gone too far. “The court has obviously made mistakes throughout its history, and those should be criticized, so long as it is in terms of the decision, really, and not ad hominem against the justices. I just think that doesn’t do any good,” the chief justice said.
In March, Roberts responded quickly when Trump called U.S. District Judge James Boasberg “crooked,” coming down on the idea of impeachment not being the answer. Actually, he’s right, but for a different reason than he gave. It’s pointless as it would never go anywhere.
As an aside, Roberts is a friend of Boasberg’s. By association, that’s concerning. He has other sketchy friends like Norm Eisen, who is behind many of these lawsuits against Trump, and was, ironically, heavily involved in impeachment efforts against Donald Trump.
“Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts, an appointee of George W. Bush, said at the time.
In a speech earlier this month, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden appointee who doesn’t know what a woman is, condemned “threats and harassment.” She said they amounted to “attacks on our democracy [that] ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.”
Roberts’ public tone since Jackson’s remarks has been notably less dire. At a judicial event in Buffalo last week, he repeated his earlier written statement opposing impeachment of judges over decisions, but didn’t elaborate.
Sotomayor recently outright weaponized the Supreme Court, telling law firms to fight the Trump lawsuits without mentioning his name.
Roberts assured the students on Monday that the members of the Court all get along. That’s nice.
“We have to work together on these things that are difficult. You find a way to get along,” Roberts said. “It’s a long job. If you’re sort of really at each other’s throats with bad feelings and stuff like that, it just — it’s not a good way to function. … We do have to address some very, very difficult things, and we’re the only people who are doing it.”
Roberts, 70, isn’t retiring anytime soon. He said he has a “good, balanced way of looking at things.” [Like Obamacare? It’s a tax, but not a tax?]
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