Chief Justice Roberts: Supreme Court Justices Are Not Political Actors

Chief Justice John Roberts said Supreme Court justices are not “political actors” and that unpopular decisions are based solely on what the law provides. Speaking at a judicial conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Roberts pushed back against the view that the court makes policy rather than interprets the Constitution.

“I think they view us as purely political actors, which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do,” he said, according to the Associated Press. ” “One thing we have to do is make decisions that are unpopular,” he added. He said criticism should focus on the rulings themselves rather than personal attacks on justices or judges.

Roberts condemned the targeting of lower-court judges, repeating a warning he has made amid rising threats to the judiciary. “That’s not appropriate and it can lead to very serious problems,” he said. High-profile personal criticism of judges has come from President Trump, who has also targeted Roberts and other justices who ruled against him on tariffs imposed under an emergency-powers law.

Justice Neil Gorsuch told an interviewer that the Supreme Court is “doing pretty darn well” in handling the hardest cases in the country. He noted the nine justices reach unanimous agreement about 40 percent of the time. Even in split decisions, he said, only about half are the predictable 5-4 or 6-3 ideological divides; the rest are “scrambled every which way,” according to Reason magazine.

Gorsuch pointed to his own voting record allying at times with liberal justices on criminal justice matters while differing from some conservative colleagues. He described the court as a model of respectful and principled adjudication.

Gorsuch broke silence on violent threats against the judiciary and Supreme Court leaks. “My loyalty is the Constitution and laws of the United States,” he stated. He spoke after Trump’s attacks on the court and said he is determined to remain independent and fearless.