U.S. Chief Justice Warns Of Internet Disinformation, Urges Civics Education

(Reuters) – U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern on
Tuesday about disinformation amplified by the internet and social
media as he focused his year-end report on the weakening state of
civics education in the United States.

“In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and
false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand
our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more
vital,” Roberts said in his annual report on behalf of the federal
judiciary.

The chief justice warned that Americans “have come to take
democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the
wayside.”

Roberts’ comments come as U.S. legislators and officials have
raised concerns about the persistence of foreign propaganda and
false news aimed at sowing discord in the U.S. political system in
the lead-up to the 2020 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies and an inquiry by former Special
Counsel Robert Mueller found that Russia engaged in a campaign of
hacking and propaganda to sway the 2016 presidential race toward
Republican President Donald Trump. Mueller did not establish that
members of Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016
election.

Roberts said in his report that an independent judiciary was a
“key source of national unity and stability” and called on his
judicial colleagues to promote public confidence and trust by
reflecting on their duty to judge without fear or favor.

He has previously lamented the perception in an increasingly
polarized society that lower courts and the Supreme Court are
becoming politicized, and that judges are guided primarily by their
partisan affiliations.

Trump has repeatedly criticized federal courts and judges who
have blocked his policies, while some Democratic lawmakers have
suggested that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is
motivated mainly by politics instead of interpreting the law.

Roberts, 64, named to the court in 2005 by Republican President
George W. Bush, is poised to preside over Trump’s looming U.S.
Senate impeachment trial, a highly visible yet largely ceremonial
role.

By the end of June, the Supreme Court is expected to decide
several major cases involving a number of hot-button issues
including abortion rights, Trump’s move to kill a program that
protects young immigrants, dubbed “Dreamers,” who were brought to
the United States illegally as children, and Trump’s bid to keep
details of his finances secret.

Roberts listed in his report a number of ways his judicial
colleagues had helped advance public understanding of the law and
civics knowledge.

He cited the example of Merrick Garland, chief judge of the
Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, who volunteers as a tutor at a local elementary school.
Garland’s 2016 nomination to the Supreme Court by Democratic
President Barack Obama was not taken up by the
Republican-controlled Senate.

Roberts’ annual report was released just a few days after the
death of his mother, Rosemary Roberts, who died on Saturday at age
90.

Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Peter
Cooney