SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts warns elected officials not to ignore Supreme Court decisions

’These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected,’ Roberts writes in his annual report

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned that elected officials should not to disregard the rulings made by the court in a report.

Roberts, who will mark 20 years at the top of the court later this year, released his year-end report where he warned of increasing attacks to the legitimacy of the court.

The court has come under increased scrutiny ever since it moved to a decisive 6-3 conservative majority largely put in place by President-elect Donald Trump during his first tenure in the White House from 2017 to 2021.

“In a democracy—especially in one like ours, with robust First Amendment protections—criticism comes with the territory,” Roberts wrote. But he denounced what he considered four areas that threaten the independence of the judiciary: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments.

The chief justice, whom former president George W Bush nominated to be chief justice in 2005 after the passing of William Rehnquist, cited the increase in violent threats against jurists.

U.S. Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts has released his annual report (Getty Images)

Roberts also slammed elected officials for criticizing the court too strongly.

“Public officials, too, regrettably have engaged in recent attempts to intimidate judges—for example, suggesting political bias in the judge’s adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations,” he wrote.

In the past, Trump has blasted the chief justice for saying that judges are not partisan figures.

“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ’Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country,” Trump tweeted back in 2018.

Democrats have argued that the Supreme Court and its decisions have become politicized, particularly in the wake of Dobbs v Jackson, which overturned Roe v Wade and the national right to abortion), and last year’s decision to grant Trump immunity for “official acts” as president, which delayed one of his criminal trials.

The Justices of the Supreme Court, in 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

“Attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed. Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others.”

At the same time, Roberts said that public officials should not disregard the judiciary. The chief justice alluded to how in the past, southern states sought to disregard rulings on segregation.

“Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings,” Roberts wrote. “These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.”