There are certain dates that have become a regular feature in American life. In February, the Sandhill Cranes return to the Platte River in Tennessee. In March, the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano…and in October, the protesters have returned to Hupper Island, the summer vacation home of Chief Justice Roberts.
The last migratory pattern is more recent and certainly less welcomed. In past years, liberal protesters have descended on the homes of conservative justices to disrupt their lives, shout abuses, and, in one case involving Justice Brett Kavanaugh, seek to kill a member of the Court. Protesters outside the home of Justice Amy Coney Barrett left bloody dolls on the lawn, knowing that she had young children inside.
This week, the protesters appeared at the vacation home of Chief Justice John Roberts in Maine. Calling themselves “kayak-tivists,” they formed flotillas facing his home to hold up signs and voice their displeasure at the jurist.
It is an ironic moment for a Chief Justice who has been regularly attacked by President Donald Trump for voting against his position in major cases ranging from tariffs to birthright citizenship. However, this is about rage not reason. Back in 2022, Becca Shaw Glaser wrote about how Mainers needed to harass Roberts whenever he ventured out of his home.
She wrote:
“Roberts is one of the most powerful people in the entire world. He comes to Maine to unwind and feel good about himself and his decisions, despite if he has just gutted our rights, forcing rape victims to give birth after an arbitrary time period determined by the government, gutted environmental protections, overruled basic gun regulations, decreed against the separation of church and state, and made politics much more unequal and infested with money.
Exactly why should we continue to let Roberts use Maine as his easygoing backdrop for fun and relaxation? Why should Roberts get to breathe in the beautiful Maine air when he is fine with destroying methods of keeping our air clean?…
Maine is not here as your happy place, your wind-down from all of your hard work destroying my civil liberties and democracy. No. May you never feel welcome here again…”
Glaser, who was later dropped as a columnist, has pushed Mainers to hound Roberts wherever he goes in Maine:
“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.”
In its recent discussion of these protesters, the New York Times features Glaser and reveals how last year Glaser was approached by Roberts’ daughter, Josephine, who sought to defend her Dad during one of Glaser’s harassing protests. The Times recounts how liberals have been pushed to the breaking point by Roberts despite the fact that he has had to curtail his movement around the island.
One of the featured suffering locals is Wendy Schlotterbeck, who was outraged when Roberts was spotted celebrating the Fourth of July on the island. The Times sympathetically explains the outrage since “[Roberts] and his colleagues had just narrowed protections for transgender athletes and minors and allowed Trump’s immigration crackdown to proceed.” It recounts how Schlotterbeck has transgender relatives and “immigrant friends of hers [have] been arrested.” Outraged, she left the picnic and, the next day, joined the “kayak-tivists” outside Roberts’ home.
Protesting outside the home of a Supreme Court justice is a crime, though some of us have questioned the constitutionality of such laws. Putting that debate aside, the protests should be condemned by all Americans as reckless and wrong.
Justices may hold different views on the left or the right, but they are all people of good faith who are trying to protect what they consider the essential rights of our Republic. (Liberal justices have largely been spared such protests at their homes, though occasional protests have occurred).
What is maddening is that this Court has continued to show its independence in ruling with the law rather than a partisan agenda. Unlike those on the left who want to pack the Court with an instant liberal majority (in the name of fighting partisanship), the Court continues to vote overwhelmingly on a unanimous or nearly unanimous basis. The conservative majority also continues to rule against the Trump Administration when the law requires it.
This term has many potential blockbuster decisions and the protesters are expected to return to the homes of justices around Washington. We have every right to debate, and indeed protest, such decisions. However, we should all unite around all of these justices — on the left and the right — in denouncing these protesters literally bobbing and floating on a sea of rage.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
This column appeared on Fox.com
It has been offered in comments below that Chuchill was little different from Hitler in his attitude towards non Europeans.
I happened to be re-reading ‘The Gathering Storm,’ by Churchill when I came across this by him:
“Mussolini’s designs upon Abyssinia were unsuited to the ethics of the twentieth century. They belonged to those dark ages when white men felt themselves entitled to conquer yellow, brown, black, or red men, and subjugate them by their superior strength and weapons.”
Of course Churchill was disgusted by both Mussolini and Hitler.
That should answer any defamatory comparison of Churchill with Hitler.
‘In February, the Sandhill Cranes return to the Platte River in Tennessee. ‘
Tennessee?
Try NEBRASKA.
Someone needs to explain to these people that Justice Roberts is not a liberal or a conservative: He’s a “Machiavellian.” He rules according to the status quo, believing that maintaining even an unjust, corrupt system is better than having none at all.
Interesting take
Justice Roberts has frequently been accused of having no spine. This is an anatomic and physiologic impossibility considering his independent ambulatory status. However, metaphorically, he might more accurately be described as having a infinitely flexible notochord rather than the relatively inflexible bony spine of most vertebrates. [Incidentally, snakes do have an almost infinitely flexible bony spine.] Consider that if he really had a spine, he would erect in his back yard – facing the kayacktivists – a sign large enough to be read from a distance featuring a detailed depiction of a fist with an upraised middle finger above the prominently sized and ornately styled initials “ESAD”.
I just want to say that I have a lot of respect for you Professor Turley and I’m sure that you keeping a level head and sticking to the actual law instead of flights of fancy based on biased opinion. I know it has probably taken a huge toll in ways we don’t read about here. I’m just the boring Associate degree level education GenXer so my thanks and a 10 dollar bill probably wouldn’t even by a large coffee today, but when I come here it’s one of the few places that makes me realize that, yes, everyone else seems to be insane not me (well, they at least most are far more insane then me). I try not to worry so much in life when it comes to things I can’t change, or do much about, but lately I have had a hard time reckoning with the considerable rise in people (primarily on the left) that have been dumbed down so much they seem intent not to make the country better, but seem to desire to make it worse. Did I put on a military uniform, and lose friends for this? I love my country but it feels increasingly that my service was a waste, it was for nothing. All I see are mobs of stupid people who have plenty of option where they can go but, instead, won’t go anywhere and want to destroy the place for the rest of us. The bizarre part is that most of these people have never been anywhere else. I watched the Berlin wall fall, I saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some people in our country need to go watch that footage again. Those people are celebrating the demise of the very system that our stupid people today want to put in place here. Think about that. The worst part is we actually have people teaching at Universities, that know full well socialism fails every time but are propagandizing a new generation to fail just like all the others did. That is intentional.
Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsich, and Barrett are vile pieces of Far-Leftist IslamoCommuNazi scumbagwormmeat who lie and distort, twist, and mangle the law and the English language.
But that said, such scumbagwormmeat could still serve a pupose in our world after they are put deep in the ground, if such creatures don’t poison the vegetation above them.
Don’t hold back. No reason for you to hide your glaring ignorance and ugly distorted soul. Let it all out!
You put ACB in the same group as Roberts and Kavanaugh?
That makes NO sense – ACB votes EVERYTHING Left, how Trump nominated her we will never know…
Maybe she performed ‘favors’ on him…
#. Over many years I’ve enjoyed this blog. It made me think about things I’d not thought about such as the Constitution and American history. I’d taken it all for granted.
Before discovering this blog I listened to Professor Dershowitz and the dershow, you tube. I listened everyday for years and wouldn’t miss his 30 minutes. I was anxious to listen.
Thank you for you generosity. Politics and the US are a great sadness now.
Adieu
America went south when the Supreme Court failed to strike down Lincoln’s denial of secession.
Reprehensible slavery notwithstanding, secession is unprohibited and fully constitutional.
All Lincoln ever had to do was follow the constitutional process of passing legislation to abolish through the Congress, but he didn’t have the votes.
Lincoln threw the baby out with the bathwater; he threw constitutional rights and freedom out with slavery.
At the inflection point of Lincoln, the communists seized their opportunity and initiated their long progressive march.
Congress has no power to tax for Social Security or Medicare, and the entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Article 1, Section 8, and the 5th Amendment right to private property are absolute.
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“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
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“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what [their powers] forbid.”
Based on your views of the general welfare and commerce clauses, I don’t understand where you think Congress has the power to abolish slavery in 1861. Please explain how you get there.
In by legislation, out by legislation.
Slavery was legal.
In by what Federal legislation?
“America went south when the Supreme Court failed to strike down Lincoln’s denial of secession.”
Literally true. That’s where the Union Army went; South.
You don’t cite the Constitution for any prohibition of secession; you cannot.
Lincoln high-criminally denied fully constitutional secession and invaded a sovereign foreign nation.
The criminal union army carried out illegal orders.
You don’t like the law. Lincoln didn’t like the law.
Too bad.
In a free society of laws, the laws prevail or there is no free society.
Separation of powers doctrine say the three branches are co-equal. Lincoln was CIC so he had the army. And he used it.
I agree secession was not illegal, many historical papers make that clear. But, essentially, the civil war emergency condition made Lincoln into a Dux Bellorum who had the inherent executive power to decide the question via the most ancient form of law, the law of tooth and fang, the law of conquest. Sorry I know this is a Schmittian viewpoint, some won’t like that.
Sad it came to that, would have been better for the cheap Yankee industrialists to pony up funds to buy out the manumission of slaves en masse like Brazil. well, it was cheaper to send Irish immigrants to die for the cause.
I am glad Lincoln protected the Union, our country is great today because of it. But make no mistake it was a mixed bag
Nathan Forrest
Is “rage the right word? It seems that “zeal” or “fanaticism” are more accurate? These people behave like religious zealots. They probably have given up traditional religious loyalties, but they miss the senses of righteousness, belonging, moral struggle, moral certainty, group validation, authoritative doctrine, etc, which a well developed religion provides. They are like the Europeans who became Communists in the 1930. They are essentially Communists without an official membership.
What could be more fanatical than the MAGA devotion to the most unqualified, incompetent, corrupt, and deceitful person ever to occupy the White House?
Oligarchs, who are trying to destroy democracy by trying to rig the elections and gerrymandering, not only helped get this sociopathic narcissist elected, they’re spending millions trying to keep Republicans in power. The attack ads against Democrats are vicious because they are so desperate. They spent billions to get Trump elected because they knew he would get them massive tax breaks, roll back environmental and consumer protections and not enforce regulations, which would help them get richer—which is all they care about. They don’t care about Trump’s corruption, the lies, the war he started, inflation, the cost of living or anything involving the issues that affect ordinary Americans.
The oligarchs started their own media to mitigate the damage they knew this racist, misogynistic xenophobic loser would cause. Turley is part of the MAGA media propaganda team.
Trump and Republicans have packed the SCOTUS with extreme right wingers who were first vetted by the Federalist Society to carry out the Project 2025 agenda and reverse Roe v. Wade. They are trying to sell the public on the idea that adding more justices who are not MAGA would be wrong—“court packing” (which we already have with justices who are far right wing, but it’s what most Americans want— a SCOTUS that is more politically-balanced. You and Turley try to make the case that this is “rage” or “fanaticism”. Americans who are patriots should be outraged by Trump, MAGA and the Project 2025 agenda that we never wanted and that Trump lied about being his agenda.
Ano
What could be more fanatical than the DEM-O-RATS devotion to the most unqualified, incompetent, corrupt, and deceitful person ever to occupy the White House?
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Yes we know that was biden. You don’t need to bring it up time after time.
Thanks for your “thoughtful” comment. We don’t hear nearly enough from the depraved, degenerate, perverted Far-Leftist Community.
Technically they were vetted by the Federalist Society, not the Heritage Foundation. The Federalist Society was first at the trough and went with the smaller target of the judiciary, rather than the White House. It’s two branches of the oligarchy slicing up the US government for sometimes overlapping purposes. Note, however, they are not completely aligned as seen when the Federalist Society denies the Heritage Foundation a win on some cases.
I am a lifelong Republican, I voted for Trump three times now i can’t stand him. I may go vote blue for the first time in my life. Or i May stay home. I am sickened by the war situations, the price of diesel, and his excess in deporting even legal migrants now. Disgusting
Hillary calls us “deplorables”. Biden calls us “garbage”. Pelosi calls us “grotesque”.
They all knew they couldn’t win an actual debate on the issues using logic, fact or reason, so they resort to this silly name-calling, which proves Professor Turley’s “Rage” diagnosis.
Thankfully, those hypocritical narcissists are not even smart enough, or capable of understanding just how many people (especially Independents) they encourage to vote against them by doing those things.
That’s why I’m okay with these idiots staging these ridiculous protests, as long as they obey the law and don’t force 2A proponents to come out with their “rifles behind every blade of grass” and demonstrate why they were idiots for threatening real Americans. 😉
OT
Today I read again a comment on how Tucker thinks we should not have fought in WW II.
We weren’t given a choice. After Pearl Harbor Hitler declared war on us. When an enemy attacks you are in a war whether you like it or not. Iran showed us what happens if you try to ignore it for decades.
But that led me to wonder if the UK is trying to pretend it lost the war to the Nazis.
It has become a police state with police arresting citizens for thought crimes every day. Its energy infrastructure and industry are being dismantled. Foreign occupiers are taking over its towns and cities. Natives are degraded to second class status. Its history and sacred sites are being erased. Its heroes are vilified and their statues defaced. The flags under which veterans fought are being torn down. It is attempting to thwart the will of the people by submerging the country into the tyrannical and corrupt continental system. England is becoming an historical artfact of some curiosity because it is dead, or nearly so.
It is almost as if the Nazis won.
Have you ever even been to Britain in the last twenty years? Every single thing you have said is a lie or at best a gross distortion. Stop believing the rubbish that Trump, Vance and, yes, the great Professor “Rage” Turley spouts. The UK is not perfect, but it is far, far, far better than the US is under your present regime.
Over the past few years, I have seen many videos and media reports about what is happening in England, most of which did not originate from, or have any connection to, Trump, Vance, or Professor Turley. Pretty much all of them support Young’s description.
Oldman.
More:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/british-government-caught-handing-thousands-hijabs-illegal-boat/
UK government caught handing out hijabs to illegal boat migrants.
Surrender or civil war. Scholar David Betz is predicting civil war.
When I saw several brawny cops arresting the little Dundee Girl for brandishing a knife and hatchet to warn an immigrant predator away from her little sister I thought that if you shameless thugs were doing your job protecting citizens a little girl wouldn’t need weapons to walk the streets.
Even Scotland seems to have lost or sissified its men. Little girls are needed to protect even littler girls.
Yes, have been there and have Brit friends.
Where are you? Romania? How is it to have your election overthrown by globalist bureaucrats?
Paid troll.
Reading comments about what Tucker thinks means you are ingesting Israeli propaganda. Zionists have been engaging in a very concerted smear campaign against Tucker ever since he first questioned the US taxpayers’ obligations to fund and perhaps fight in Israel’s wars. If you want to know what Tucker thinks, why not listen to his commentary and interviews and decide for yourself?
Anonymous: “you are ingesting Israeli propaganda…
Thanks for reminding me of another thing that suggests the Nazis won: Resurging antisemitism.
Another big crack in the edifice of civilization. I bet you would have relished the Nuremberg party rallies.
Of course! Any US taxpayer who has concerns or questions about the State of Israel’s use of the US to wage continuous war on its neighbors is a Nazi.
That was consensus until Comrade General Secretary Roosevelt sided with the Chinese communists he so loved and denied oil and compelled the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor to provide Roosevelt the excuse he needed to travel the world searching for war.
America’s refusal to accept Japanese immigrants ans accept them as a leading nation followed by a blockade of Japan was the cause of Pearl Harbor. History reveals Churchill was not too far apart from Hitler. Tucker may have been on to something.
Eight Ball,
Read ‘The Rape of Nanking’ and ‘Factories of Death.”
Agreed, the Japanese were ruthless and barbaric. We’re talking 1930’s era and on, one step out of Samurai. Tojo was a descendant of the old warrior clan, he did not have a good perspective of the world. Japan like Germany, France, the Dutch and America were all in expansion mode in Asia. Japan believed Asia should remain under Asian control and leadership. Cost America alot of good men and countless civilians.
By the way, we didn’t blockade Japan. We stopped selling them some things.
In Nanking they invaded and murdered something like 200,000 civilians. Some were buried alive. Others were beheaded in beheading contests. The Japanese were proud of it and took pictures. Women were strapped to special rape chairs and gang raped until torn and bleeding and dying. In some places they distributed candy laced with deadly germs to Chinese children. In other experiments Chinese were tied to stakes in concentric circles with explosives in the center to measure the extent of blast damage. ‘Autopsies’ were performed on living subjects without anesthesia. Our response to these and other horrors was mild.
Churchill was always far apart from Hitler. For one thing out of many, Churchill was not antisemitic.
I wonder where you are getting your bizarre ideas about history? Or are you a juvenile just making things up?
Churchill looked at the people of India and Japanese as a lesser class that required British rule and governance. He saw them as subservient to British rule and cringed at meeting Ghandi dressed in rags. He was full on of the same mind set of white aryan supremacy. A razor’s edge from Hitlers views, his cornering the rice markets in India resulted in a million deaths in India. To the Victor go the spoils as well as authoring of the history.
Eight ball,
You should give up looking at history through the lens of LSD.
Why don’t you try a quick google review of history of the 1942 Bengal rice famine rather than attacking the messenger. A good analysis of where Churchill’s colonial government secured Indias already depleted rice markets to feed his military rather than feed the Indian people. It resulted in the starvation of over 3 Million Indian people.
After that you can research China’s Mao Tse Tung and the 20 million people he killed. Ain’t war hell?
I don’t use drugs, thanks though. Let me know if you need any more information in regards as where to look.
Eight,
I googled ‘Bengal rice famine’ and got a fairly good AI summary.
It is not what you think or say.
If you don’t use drugs perhaps a CAT Scan of your head can provide an explanation.
Young
Perhaps you should get one also, next time you have a colonoscopy you can get the two for one deal.
As I suspected: A juvenile.
You’re the one slinging insults oblivious one. I simply replied evidencing your lack of mental acuity.