HERSHEY, Pennsylvania — As the Supreme Court weathers another intense round of criticism for a Voting Rights Act decision that is roiling Congressional elections in several states, Chief Justice John Roberts insisted Wednesday that the court is above the political fray.
“I think [people] view us as purely political actors, which I don't think is an accurate understanding of what we do,” Roberts said at a judicial conference here. “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 offered the comments in response to a question about the public’s biggest misunderstanding about the court. He did not directly address the court’s ruling a week ago dramatically narrowing the Voting Rights Act and prompting a slew of Republican-led states to consider last-minute redrawing of their Congressional maps to reduce or eliminate districts that were created to increase Black voters’ representation.
The decision, which split the Supreme Court 6-3 along ideological lines, prompted harsh attacks on the GOP-appointed justices in the majority.
“Republicans have concluded that they need to cheat to win, and the Supreme Court conservatives have decided to aid and abet their scheme. Democrats are going to fight back with every tool available,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told POLITICO last week.
Separately, President Donald Trump savaged three of the court’s conservatives, including Roberts, after they joined the court’s three liberals in a February ruling striking down a central pillar of Trump’s tariff policy.
Roberts said Wednesday that criticism of the courts is dangerous when it veers into personal attacks.
“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.”
Roberts suggested that heated rhetoric can endanger judges. “There's a lot of hostility that's publicized about judicial decisions and which judge wrote those decisions,” he 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.”
Roberts also commented on the substance of the court’s decisions, insisting that the high court only rarely casts aside prior precedent, as it did with the 2022 decision overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion established almost a half century earlier in Roe v. Wade. The chief justice said such occasions should be uncommon. “If you do it cavalierly, overrule precedent just because you think it’s wrong, then the whole system begins to suffer,” he said.
Roberts sounded somewhat exasperated with how oral arguments before the court have grown protracted due to changes in the format during and after the pandemic era, sometimes stretching to more than two hours in a single case.
“I think it has blown up a little bit. It’s too long,” the chief justice said, vowing to try to persuade his colleagues to agree to rein them in. “I think we’ll have to look at it over the summer. I think arguments do go on a little too long and are maybe not as focused as usual.”
