08/25/2026
WOW: Protesters paddled straight up to Chief Justice John Roberts' private island — kayaks, canoes, and all — to confront him over his role in enabling Trump's authoritarian agenda.
This comes amid a string of one-sided decisions from the stacked court, the latest of which greenlights a plan for Trump to severely limit mail-in voting, because he knows he can’t win the midterms otherwise.
More than 20 people took to the water off Port Clyde, Maine, while another 20 demonstrated on land, during an hour-long "floating vigil" near Roberts' vacation home on Hupper Island.
Their message was hard to miss. One sign read: "The Roberts Court: Rubber Stamp for Fascism." Another accused him of benching the Constitution entirely.
The protest was organized by The Audacity: Creative Action Together, a progressive group that says Roberts has turned the Court into a rubber stamp for authoritarianism.
They've got receipts. Roberts personally wrote the ruling granting presidents sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution — a decision that shields Trump himself. He also authored the 2013 ruling that gutted federal voting rights protections.
And under his leadership, the Court has leaned harder than ever on the "shadow docket," letting major Trump administration policies take effect without full arguments or a written opinion explaining why.
Roberts has spent years insisting the Court is above politics. That’s easy to say from your private island retreat.
