By John Fritze, CNN
Hershey, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday lamented what he framed as a widespread misunderstanding of the Supreme Court’s work, pushing back on criticism that many of the court’s highest-profile cases wind up with conservative outcomes.
“People think we’re making policy decisions,” Roberts told a conference of attorneys and judges in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when asked what he felt Americans most misunderstood about the institution he has led for more than two decades.
“I think they view us as truly political actors,” he said, “which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”
Roberts’ remarks came just days after the court handed down a blockbuster decision gutting a key provision of the Voting Rights Act — a ruling that lawmakers in several southern states have used to justify a chaotic push to redraw their congressional boundaries to help Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. That decision, handed down with the six-justice conservative wing aligned against the three-justice liberal bloc, has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and voting rights groups, some of whom have reupped calls for court reforms.
The decision last week also led to a fiery exchange of opinions between three conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — and liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson days later. Jackson wrote that the court should have stayed on the sidelines of a technical dispute that followed the Voting Rights Act decision in order “to avoid the appearance of partiality.”
“What principle has the court violated?” Alito fired back in a concurring opinion. “The principle that we should never take any action that might unjustifiably be criticized as partisan?”
On a broader level, Roberts’ defense on Wednesday came as the court is heading into the final months of a term that is replete with major cases involving President Donald Trump’s power to reshape the federal government. The court handed down one of those decisions in February, striking down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs in a ruling that drew sharp and personal criticism from the president.
Trump said that the justices who ruled against him, including two whom he appointed, were an “embarrassment to their families.”
Roberts, speaking Wednesday at a conference organized by the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, reiterated past comments that criticism of the court’s decision is fair game but said that people have “to be a little more careful” about leveling personal criticism against judges.
“As soon as that happens,” he said, “that’s not appropriate.”
The chief justice did not mention Trump specifically and did not discuss any of the high-profile cases the justices are grappling with this term.
Roberts was interviewed by US Circuit Judge Michael Chagares, the 3rd Circuit’s chief judge, who was nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush. Chagares stuck mostly to softball questions, asking Roberts for the advice he would give to judges, lawyers and a younger version of himself.
Responding to a question about the court’s ever-lengthier oral arguments, Roberts did make some news for those who follow the institution closely. The chief justice said the format the justices embraced following the Covid-19 pandemic means arguments are carrying on for “too long” and that he int