Supreme Court does not makes its rulings ‘based on popular sentiment,’ Chief Justice Roberts says
Chief Justice John Roberts, seen at a talk in May 2025 in New York, recently said the U.S. Supreme Court must make “unpopular” decisions. (Photo by Jeffrey T. Barnes/The Associated Press)
Chief Justice John Roberts told attendees of a judicial conference Wednesday that the U.S. Supreme Court often must issue “unpopular” opinions, as the high court faces widespread backlash over its recent ruling limiting the Voting Rights Act’s use to challenge racial discrimination in congressional redistricting, Law360 reports.
During a speech at the Third Circuit Judicial Conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Roberts said the Supreme Court doesn’t make its rulings “based on popular sentiment” or what the justices “think would be the best.”
The April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais struck down the state’s current election map containing two majority-Black voting districts.
The Supreme Court’s ruling that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act can only be used to challenge intentional racial discrimination in redistricting has received backlash from voting and civil rights advocates who argue that the decision rolls back decades of progress in voting equality, according to Law360.
Roberts told the conference attendees that he wished that the public better understood how the high court made its decisions.
“One of the things we have to do is issue decisions that are unpopular,” he said. “A lot of the Constitution is protecting minority views and minority opinions, and so a lot of our opinions are unpopular.”
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