Chief Justice John Roberts has spent more than 20 summers at his home on a small island off the coast of Maine, but now many of his neighbors there have backed away from him or even demonstrate against him.
The New York Times interviewed more than two dozen residents over the summer about Hupper Island and the nearby town of Port Clyde, and their accounts describe a community that once embraced the conservative justice is now sharply divided over him.
Much of their anger goes back to the court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and to Roberts’ 2024 majority opinion granting Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution.
For years, Roberts mixed easily with lobstermen, summer residents and local business owners. At one annual gathering, he would call dinner to order by announcing, “Oyez, oyez, oyez, the lobsters are ready” in a nod to his tenure on the bench.
However, tensions have flared in recent years, as protesters calling themselves “kayak-tivists” gather on the water twice each summer, a few hundred yards from his house, holding signs. Others stand on the town dock, and signs criticizing the chief justice – “Roberts Benched the Constitution,” reads one – have spread along local roads.
Some longtime friends who would never join a protest told the Times they have pulled back socially, and some former members of a local cigar club said they skipped this summer’s gatherings partly because they did not want to spend time with Roberts and his wife.
“From what I see, the barrier runs both ways,” said Mary Anne Mason, a friend and former law partner of Roberts. “It’s harder for him to feel comfortable approaching people — and vice versa.”
The hostility has followed Roberts beyond his summer refuge. During a visit to nearby Monhegan Island this year, people who recognized him chanted that he should be ashamed.
His security detail has also grown, and residents said that has added to the distance. Roberts used to spend Sunday afternoons on the dock after church, but on protest days this summer, he stayed away.
Tamara Cody, a local kayak outfitter and longtime friend, said the change has been “hard to watch.”
The protests have divided the peninsula. Kevin Lipson, Roberts’ closest friend in the area, urged neighbors on Facebook to show restraint. “Civility should be our guiding principle,” he wrote.
But at a July protest, Lipson confronted a demonstrator and told her he would photograph her license plate, find out where she lived and protest outside her home. When she asked whether that was a threat, he replied, “It’s a promise,” according to both of them.
Demonstrators say they have few other ways to hold a justice with a lifetime appointment accountable. Wendy Schlotterbeck, a longtime island neighbor, said she wished she could ask Roberts directly: “Do you realize what your decisions are doing to my family and my community?”
Roberts declined to comment to the Times. A recent Gallup poll put the Supreme Court’s approval rating at a record low of 33 percent.
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