(The Center square) – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned that judges across the country face increasing threats from disinformation, violence, intimidation and those threatening to defy court decisions.
Roberts said disinformation in the online era poses challenges for the federal judiciary.
“Violence, intimidation, and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable,” he wrote in his annual year-end report.
“Disinformation, even if disconnected from any direct attempt to intimidate, also threatens judicial independence,” Roberts wrote. “At its most basic level, distortion of the factual or legal basis for a ruling can undermine confidence in the court system. Our branch is peculiarly ill-suited to combat this problem, because judges typically speak only through their decisions. We do not call press conferences or generally issue rebuttals.”
Roberts noted that “the modern disinformation problem is magnified by social media.”
Roberts’ year-end report comes after a year in which the U.S. Supreme Court issued major decisions regarding presidential immunity and the reach of federal regulations. The election-year report also comes as federal prosecutors drop two criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump. Trump widely criticized the judges, prosecutors and other court officials who participated in the four criminal cases he faced in the last two years. In a New York case, a judge kept Trump under a gag order to prevent Trump from making comments about those involved in his court case.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled presidents and former presidents have absolute immunity for actions related to core constitutional powers and presumptive immunity for official actions. The ruling said the president has no immunity for unofficial conduct.
Roberts noted that criticism of judicial decisions was a time-worn pratice.
“Some tension between the branches of the government is inevitable and criticism of judicial interpretations of the people’s laws is as old as the Republic itself,” he wrote.
Roberts also noted that the court system isn’t perfect.
“Of course, the courts are no more infallible than any other branch. In hindsight, some judicial decisions were wrong, sometimes egregiously wrong. And it was right of critics to say so,” he wrote. “In a democracy – especially in one like ours, with robust First Amendment protections – criticism comes with the territory. It can be healthy.”
Roberts said the judiciary faces a raft of threats.
“Unfortunately, not all actors engage in ‘informed criticism’ or anything remotely resembling it,” Roberts wrote. “I feel compelled to address four areas of illegitimate activity that, in my view, do threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends: (1) violence, (2) intimidation, (3) disinformation, and (4) threats to defy lawfully entered judgments.”
He pointed to acts of deadly violence against judges and their families.
“Disgruntled litigants have perpetrated acts of violence against several judges and members of their families. Between 1979 and 1989, three federal judicial officers – two district judges and a circuit judge – were killed for doing their jobs. 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,” he 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.”
The U.S. Marshals Service reported that threats against judges have tripled over the past decade. The service investigated more than 1,300 incidents in 2022.
