US Supreme Court chief cautions against political rhetoric targeting judges

The US Supreme Court’s chief cautioned that political hyperbole and “threats of violence and murder” are endangering judges.

Chief Justice John Roberts refrained from naming specific individuals, but his rare public warning coincided with President Donald Trump’s frequent rhetorical assaults against courts that are halting some of his most controversial proposals.

Roberts warned against “expressing a high degree of hostility to the court” or judges who may be considered “part of the problem” amid increasingly heated political disagreements when speaking to a judicial conference in North Carolina on Saturday.

“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,” Roberts told the conference.

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“I think the political people on both sides of the aisle need to keep that in mind,” he said, stressing he did not believe the threats were associated more with Republicans or Democrats.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has launched harsh assaults on federal judges who have ruled against his unilateral orders or stymied his efforts to deport migrants or reduce the government workforce. The administration has escalated its scathing attacks on judges.

In April, the FBI detained Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee judge, for attempting to assist a person evading Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The White House has been accused of disobeying some court rulings that it disagrees with, something the administration rejects.

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Amid multiple standoffs between the Trump White House and federal courts, the president and some Republican lawmakers have called for the impeachment of judges who have temporarily paused Trump’s orders to cut government spending or ramp up deportations.

He has blasted federal judges as “monsters” who suffer from a “sick” ideology and want the United States to “go to hell.”

As recently as Friday he lashed out at “radical left judges” who he said pose a “grave threat to democracy” for seeking to curb the president’s powers.

Violence and threats against judges in the United States have risen in recent years. A man in 2022 was arrested for threatening to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In 2023 a Maryland judge was murdered, while a judge in Kentucky was shot and killed in his courthouse in 2024.

Roberts said people from across the political spectrum should be mindful of the dangers.

“Threatening the judges for doing their job is totally unacceptable,” he said.

In March, Roberts clashed in extraordinary fashion with the executive branch when he rebuked Trump for seeking the impeachment of US District Judge James Boasberg, who had issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out.

Trump had blasted Boasberg as a “Radical Left Lunatic.”