Chief Justice John Roberts faced jeers online over a new report on the community backlash he has faced at his summer home in Maine over the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial rulings.
The New York Times interviewed more than two dozen residents over the summer about Hupper Island and the nearby town of Port Clyde, and they told reporters a community that once embraced the conservative justice is now sharply divided over him due to the court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and to Roberts’ 2024 majority opinion granting Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution.
Tensions have flared in recent years, as protesters calling themselves “kayak-tivists” gather on the water twice each summer near the justice’s house, and signs criticizing him have sprouted along local roads, and even some longtime friends have pulled back socially because they do not want to spend time with Roberts and his wife.
Many social media users agreed Roberts deserved a cold shoulder, at the very least.
“The bullies always cry ‘civility’ when the victims push back in the slightest,” commented historian Kevin Kruse.
“We’re all looking for the guy who killed civility in American life,” yelped TV writer Bob Schooley.
“Civility is when John Roberts says states can disenfranchise whomever they want, unchecked aggression is when I say ‘you sure about that, John?’” argued writer Jon Lewis.
“John Roberts should never have a loogie-free restaurant meal for the rest of his life,” sneered biographer Brian Jay Jones.
“‘John Roberts retreated to his island…’ – that line alone should be met with pitchforks and torches,” opined popular Bluesky user Linda UWS.
“Surprising portrait of an individual who, evidently, at an earlier time in his life, had different values,” observed novelist Joyce Carol Oates. “What has happened in the interim? The Roberts court isn’t just inclined to be ‘conservative’ – it is extraordinarily, astonishingly conciliatory to a single individual … What was it about Roberts that made him weak?”
“People shunning Chief Justice Roberts? Boo-effing-hoo,” guffawed climate advocate Dan Weiss. “Other horrible decisions: gutting Voting Rights Act, claiming times have changed. Johnny Boy: ‘Buy the ticket, take the ride.’”
“I love this for him,” commented author Cameron L. Mitchell. “John Roberts shouldn’t be allowed a moment’s peace ever again.”
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