The United States Supreme Court begins its 237th term today, a year that promises to be particularly significant to social conservatives with multiple religious-liberty and family-policy related cases on its docket.
There will be somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 petitions filed before the High Court, and the nine justices will accept somewhere between 70 and 80 of them for official review. We’ll be able to listen in on the very public and high-profile oral arguments and read the decisions as they’re released.
Pundits and journalists will exhaustively critique those rulings, and the laws and orders in question will either be upheld as constitutional or struck down as unconstitutional. Court followers will flock to SCOTUSblog for analysis, too. Decision days on that site have an almost sports-like or election-night sense of anticipation.
Whoever wants to know almost whatever they want about the Supreme Court these days can find it online – except for one thing:
What’s going on inside the hearts and minds of the nine justices as they navigate the pressures and increasing threats from a radical and unhinged vocal minority working tirelessly to intimidate and influence them?
Two U.S. Marshals were sitting in front of Justice Kavanaugh’s house back in the early hours of June 8, 2022 when a mentally disturbed man pulled up in a taxi. Although they didn’t know it at the time, the would-be assassin was carrying a backpack that contained a Glock pistol, lots of ammunition, a tactical knife, pepper spray, a hammer, a screwdriver, duct tape, zip ties and even soft-soled boots designed to let him walk quietly inside the Kavanaugh home without detection.
Nicholas Roske, 26, wound up calling 911 and surrendering.
But what mental and emotional toll did that take on the justice and his family?
Last week’s New York Times featured a story on the steady harassment that Chief Justice John Roberts has been enduring the last few years at his summer home in Maine.
The Old Grey Lady headline read, “After decades of potlucks and paddle-boarding on Maine’s midcoast, rising anger and protests have left the Supreme Court’s chief justice more isolated than ever.”
Chief Justice Roberts and his family have spent the last two decades on the remote island. Initially, the set-up sounded downright idyllic:
The chief justice’s life here was a story of potluck dinners and easy friendships, according to a summer of interviews with more than two dozen residents. Neighbors reveled in his position but kept exchanges with him about it brief or light. At a long-ago annual summer party, he used to participate in touch football, then call dinner to order by proclaiming: “Oyez, oyez, oyez, the lobsters are ready.”
But then came the protesters – both by land and by sea, including “kayak-tivists” who float by the Roberts seaside home with signs denouncing the Chief. The Times seems to almost sympathize with the rudeness of the radical activists.
“For the demonstrators, the hour is too dire, the threat to democracy too serious for niceties,” the Times writes. “They argue that citizens have no other way to hold justices, with their lifetime appointments, accountable.”
A local newspaper columnist named Becca Shaw Glaser, incensed that Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority to uphold the Mississippi law that banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, published this missive shortly after the decision:
Should you see Chief Justice John Roberts duck into Squid Ink coffee or the Port Clyde General Store this summer, consider letting him know exactly what you think of him and his illegitimate, ultra-conservative court. Yell, boo, whisper, weep audibly, give him the thumbs down or the finger, hand him a note, refuse to serve him.
During interviews this weekend to promote his new book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country,” Justice Alito acknowledged how the tone of the attacks has changed since he was appointed by President George W. Bush.
“The physical threats and the harassment represent something new in our society and something that’s quite disturbing,” he told CBS News’ Jan Crawford. “And I think it’s a danger. It’s a danger for the courts. And it’s a danger for others in public life.”
He shared a similar warning with Fox News’ Shannon Bream, noting that it extends well beyond mere disagreement: “There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us.”
As Christians, we should pray for the physical safety of all our government officials, regardless of their political ideology. But we should also be praying for the resolve of those individuals who are being psychological and emotionally attacked.
Even the most principled and steadfast politicians and judges are human and vulnerableto harassment. It’s difficult if not impossible for the average person to fully appreciate what it must be like to be in the constant bullseye of radical activists who never seem to tire of insulting and attacking their opponents.
Yet, Christians understand what it means to be mocked and maligned because of their faith. The Bible encourages us to stand firm in the face of worldly opposition. “Be strong and courageous,” we read in Deuteronomy. “Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (31:6). King David urged, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).
As a new Supreme Court term begins – a term when justices will tackle such high-profile issues as religious freedom and First Amendment rights in schools (St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy), and parental rights when it comes to sexually confused children (International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson) – let’s pray that justices will stand firm, resist intimidation and faithfully uphold the United States Constitution.
