Roberts slams Schumer for ‘dangerous’ rhetoric against justices
The chief justice rebuked the Senate minority leader for saying Gorsuch and Kavanaugh ‘will pay the price’ if they cut back abortion rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday for public remarks that seemed to threaten unspecified retaliation against Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh if they vote to rein in abortion rights.
“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,” Roberts said in a written statement distributed to reporters. “All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
The chief justice’s brush-back was triggered by pointed comments Schumer made earlier Wednesday as the Supreme Court was hearing arguments on its first abortion-rights case of the Trump era: a challenge to a Louisiana law that limits abortion access by requiring that providers have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said at a pro-abortion-rights rally outside the court, according to video clips posted online. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
After Roberts’ criticism, Schumer doubled down. A spokesman declined to apologize for the senator’s remarks and argued that Roberts’ rebuke undermined his own impartiality.
“Sen. Schumer’s comments were a reference to the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court, and a warning that the justices will unleash a major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision,” said Justin Goodman, a Schumer aide.
“For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing’s deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen. Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes,” Goodman added.
While on a trip to India last week, Trump retweeted a message accusing those Democratic-appointed justices of bias. At a news conference, he said they should withdraw from cases involving his administration.
“I just don’t know how they cannot recuse themselves from anything having to do with Trump or Trump-related,” the president said. He said Sotomayor was “trying to shame people with perhaps a different view.” He also said Ginsburg’s bias was “obvious” and accused her of going “wild” during his 2016 campaign.
“Perhaps she was for Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.
Adust-up Roberts had in 2018 with Trump over his rhetoric toward the judicial branch might have led the chief justice to conclude he was obliged to publicly take on Schumer. In that earlier exchange, Roberts defended the federal judiciary after a series of statements from Trump slamming federal judges and ascribing their rulings to the partisan affiliations of the presidents who appointed them.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said then. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Like Schumer, Trump bluntly rejected Roberts’ criticism.
“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,” the president wrote on Twitter.
But on Wednesday night, the president went after Schumer.
“This is a direct & dangerous threat to the U.S. Supreme Court by Schumer,” he wrote on Twitter. “If a Republican did this, he or she would be arrested, or impeached. Serious action MUST be taken NOW!“
Asked about the flap over Schumer’s comments, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office noted that less than a month ago Schumer publicly called on Roberts to denounce Trump’s public assertion of political bias on the part of the judge handling the criminal case against the longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
“The nation now looks again to Chief Justice Roberts. … Now would be the time for the chief justice to directly and specifically defend the independence of this federal judge,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Feb. 13.
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.