Chief justice Roberts warns intimidation and violence risk judicial independence
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In sobering year-end report, chief justice laments litany of threats judges face, which he says put the rule of law at risk. Violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to disobey lawful court rulings are putting the United States’s revered principle of judicial independence in jeopardy, the chief justice of the US supreme court, John Roberts, has warned.
In a sobering end of year report, Roberts – seen as the leading rightwinger on the court’s current six-to-three pro-conservative majority – laments a litany of threats contemporary judges face in America’s increasingly polarised political climate, which he says are putting the rule of law at risk.
“There is of course no place for violence directed at judges for doing their job,” Roberts wrote, explaining that he feels “compelled to address four areas of illegitimate activity that … do threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends”.
The four are violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy the law. Citing statistics from the US marshals service, Roberts said threats and hostile communications against judges had tripled in the past decade, with more than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges recorded in the past five years alone. Several had resulted in full round-the-clock security details being assigned to judges, while in extreme cases, some judges have been given bullet proof vests for public events.
“In 2005 and 2020, close relatives of federal judges were shot to death by assailants intent on harming the judges who had handled their cases,” the chief justice wrote. “More recently, in 2022 and 2023, state judges in Wisconsin and Maryland were murdered, also at their homes. Each instance constituted a targeted attack following an adverse ruling issued by the judge exercising ordinary judicial duties.”.
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