SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts Worries for Judges’ Safety in the Wake of 2022 Rulings

In his annual end-of-year report on the current condition of the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. expressed his concern for his fellow judges’ safety. “A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” Roberts wrote. The report comes on the heels of a difficult year for the court in the eyes of the public, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade last June, and a leak of the draft opinion the month prior. In October, Justice Samuel Alito said that the decision made the justices “targets for assassination.” Later in his report, Roberts wrote that, “Judicial opinions speak for themselves, and there is no obligation in our free country to agree with them.”