Chief Justice Roberts Decries Judicial Threats After String of Key Rulings
“It becomes wrapped up in the political dispute that a judge who’s doing his or her job is part of the problem.”
Twenty-six-year-old Nicholas Roske traveled all the way from California to Maryland, armed with a pistol, a knife, zip ties, and a hammer. He came to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Authorities arrested him near the justice’s house back in 2022, just after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the public. This was just one extreme example of the threats that judges, both in the Supreme Court and lower courts, received after political leaders in the highest levels made threatening statements regarding them.
As threats against judges have recently spiked, Chief Justice Roberts warned about the dangers of violent speech toward America’s judges.
Speaking at the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit in Charlotte, North Carolina, Roberts reflected, “It becomes wrapped up in the political dispute that a judge who’s doing his or her job is part of the problem. And the danger, of course, is somebody might pick up on that. And we have had, of course, serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work,” he pointed out. “So, I think the political people on both sides of the aisle need to keep that in mind.”
One can deduce that Roberts was likely referring to President Donald Trump and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) when he mentioned the need to call out people from both sides of the aisle for their violent speech toward courts in the past.
Roberts chastised Schumer back in 2020, when the senator made a statement regarding conservative justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch during a pro-abortion rally in front of the Supreme Court. Schumer warned Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
At that time, Roberts released a statement, criticizing Schumer: “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous.”
Just two years later, when the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Dobbs decision leaked, Roske attempted to assassinate Kavanaugh. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, Marshals’ Service data revealed that they had discovered over 400 threats against individual judges.
More recently, President Trump made a post on Truth Social back in March, calling for the impeachment of a liberal judge who had blocked one of his executive orders. He described him as a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator.”
Roberts responded that no one should call for impeachment if they think a judge overstepped his or her power. “Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with decisions,” Roberts stated. “That’s what we’re there for.”
In fact, the Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that the lower courts had overstepped their authority in preventing one of President Trump’s executive orders from being carried out. In its decision, Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court limited the activist judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions.
Roberts also made a public appearance back in March, where he reminded American citizens that independent courts are essential to America’s government. One thing that makes our nation unique is that it has three separate yet equal branches of government: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The Constitution outlined this governmental structure with the intent that these branches would balance each another out and keep one another accountable.
“The judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the President,” Roberts pointed out. “That innovation doesn’t work if … the judiciary is not independent.”
As Christians in particular, we should listen to Chief Justice Roberts’s warning to avoid using violent language against anyone, but particularly in regard to those who are judges over us. Ephesians 4:29 commands us, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
As Proverbs 25:15 admonishes, the best way to persuade those in governmental authority is to use patience rather than using threats or insults. “With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.”
Evelyn Elliott serves as an intern at Family Research Council.
