John Roberts Retreated to His Island. Supreme Court Critics Found Him.
New York Times · LC · trust 35/100
Credit... Ryan David Brown for The New York Times Skip to content Skip to site index
After decades of potlucks and paddle-boarding on Maine’s midcoast, rising anger and protests have left the Supreme Court’s chief justice more isolated than ever.
Credit... Ryan David Brown for The New York Times
Listen · 20:25 min Share full article 1.1k By Jodi Kantor
Jodi Kantor has been illuminating the Supreme Court for four years, revealing how the law is decided, as well as the justices’ outlooks and dilemmas . She welcomes tips at nytimes.com/tips.
To many people on this remote stretch of Maine coastline, where every day looks like a fresh painting made of light and water, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is just “John.”
John, who has spent over 20 summers on Hupper Island, a refuge about 90 miles northeast of Portland with no cars and barely two dozen homes. John, who swaps favors with neighbors and endures jokes about his boating skills from more experienced operators. John, who has spent many mornings on the dock in Port Clyde, the postage-stamp-sized town across the water from the island, nursing a half-caff and a cinnamon bun.
For a long time, the chief justice’s life here was a story of potluck dinners and easy friendships, according to a summer of interviews with more than two dozen residents. Neighbors reveled in his position but kept exchanges with him about it brief or light. At a long-ago annual summer party, he used to participate in touch football, then call dinner to order by proclaiming: “Oyez, oyez, oyez, the lobsters are ready.”
But in recent years, as the Supreme Court has reshaped American life and handed more power to President Trump, a very personal form of anger has been rising here at the chief justice, transforming his getaways.
His summer retreats, long a well-known fact , are now a source of debate. Neighbors have taken to the water to protest him. Calling themselves “kayak-tivists,” they form flotillas facing his island home, holding waterproof signs conveying their disappointment. A local newspaper columnist recommended that people in town give him the finger.
Mr. Roberts has spent summer mornings on the dock in Port Clyde, the postage-stamp-sized town across the water from his home. Credit... Ryan David Brown for The New York Times We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
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