Chief Justice Roberts Denounces Uptick in Threats Against Judges

Violence, threats to defy lawful judgments, and other “illegitimate activity” endangers the independence of the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts said in his annual year-end report.

Roberts said his warning echoed a 2004 message from then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote that criticism of judges had dramatically increased.

“That statement is just as true, if not more so, today,” Roberts wrote in his 2024 Year End Report on the Federal Judiciary, released Tuesday.

The chief justice’s focus is notable, as his annual report typically ignores current concerns surrounding the justices and the institution.

Last year, amid a string of alleged ethical missteps by justices that led the court to issue its first-ever ethics code, Robers used his report to explore the benefits and potential risks of artificial intelligence. The 2022 report looked at the judiciary’s role in integrating public schools following Brown v. Board of Education, with no mention of the historic leak of the ruling overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Violence, Threats

Roberts’ main focus this year is on violence against judges, which he said had seen a “significant uptick in identified threats at all levels of the judiciary.”

“According to United States Marshals Service statistics, the volume of hostile threats and communications directed at judges has more than tripled over the past decade,” Roberts said.

Judicial security for the justices and other judges has been a major focus for both the judiciary and Congress in recent years. The government spending bill signed into law in late December included more than $25 million to provide around-the-clock protection of the justices’ homes.

The report also took aim at threats to ignore federal court rulings by elected officials, which Roberts said had recently come from “across the political spectrum.”

“These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected,” he said.

The warning comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office. During his first term, Trump frequently criticized judges who ruled against his administration’s policies.

One comment in 2018 in which Trump denounced an “Obama judge” who rejected his asylum policy drew a rare rebuke from the chief justice himself.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best,” Roberts said in 2018.