{"id":652953,"date":"2026-05-07T04:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652953\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:02:09","slug":"chief-justice-john-roberts-says-supreme-court-is-not-political-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652953\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court is not political \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Supreme Court justices are not \u201cpolitical actors,\u201d Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday, insisting unpopular court decisions are based solely on the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, at a very basic level, people think we\u2019re making policy decisions, we\u2019re saying we think this is how things should be, as opposed to what the law provides,\u201d he said. \u201cI think they view us as purely political actors, which I don\u2019t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks to a conference of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit in Pennsylvania came at a time of low public confidence in the court, and about a week after the court handed down a decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople visit the Supreme Court, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin)<\/p>\n

The high court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, finding it was an unconstitutional gerrymander based on race. The decision weakened the Civil Rights era law that has increased minority representation in Congress, and it opened the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the conservative majority court has also handed down landmark rulings overturning the constitutional right to abortion, expanding gun rights and ending affirmative action in higher education.<\/p>\n

Roberts didn\u2019t reference any specific decisions in his remarks, but said the court is \u201csimply not part of the political process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinions, he said, are based on the Constitution \u2014 though he acknowledged disagreement with some outcomes. \u201cOne thing we have to do is make decisions that are unpopular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Criticism, he said, should focus on rulings rather than personal attacks. He condemned the targeting of lower-court judges, a sentiment he\u2019s repeated amid rising threats to the judiciary. \u201cThat\u2019s not appropriate and it can lead to very serious problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – John Roberts, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, speaks during lecture to the Georgetown Law School graduating class of 2025, in Washington, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)<\/p>\n

High-profile criticism of judges in personal terms has come from Republican President Donald Trump, who also targeted Roberts and other justices who voted against him in the opinion that struck down tariffs the president levied under an emergency-powers law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Supreme Court justices are not \u201cpolitical actors,\u201d Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday, insisting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-652953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}