Chief Justice John Roberts Says Kids These Days Don't Appreciate The Rule Of Law

He did not mention President Donald Trump, whose attacks on the judicial system threaten the American system of governance.

While Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts characterized the rule of law as “endangered” on Monday evening, he avoided any mention of President Donald Trump’s relentless public attacks on the nation’s justice system, pointing instead to the trend of young people growing up without proper civics lessons.

Answering a question on “strengthening the rule of law,” Roberts said at a Georgetown University law school event that “one area where it’s most endangered is with young people.”

“Young people, they’re focused on high school and eighth grade and stuff like that. And how many people have really no understanding of what the role of courts are, what the different branches have to do, really even the notion of law is and what a Constitution is,” Roberts said.

He went on: “I do think you have to start as early as you possibly can, because otherwise it doesn’t become part of their understanding of government. When they’re cutting classes because they want to add all sorts of other stuff, I mean, certainly, civics is the first thing that goes, you know. And I think that’s really too bad, and we’re developing a situation where a whole group of young people is growing up having no real sense of how our system of justice works.”

Trump has routinely attacked individual judges who rule against parts of his agenda, apparently prompting his supporters to send anonymous pizzas to some of the judge’s homes. The move is interpreted as an intimidation tactic, as it shows how people know where the judge lives.