Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. issued a rare public rebuke of a sitting U.S. senator Wednesday, asserting that Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, made a "threatening" and "dangerous" statement when he claimed President Donald Trump's two appointees to the court would "pay the price" for certain rulings.

Roberts's comments came hours after Schumer, on the steps of the Supreme Court, said Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch had "released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions." The comments were made in front of a cheering crowd, as the justices, inside the court, were hearing arguments in a major abortion-rights case.

"Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All members of the court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter," Roberts said in a statement issued by the Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for Schumer, Justin Goodman, said in a statement that "the comments were a reference to the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court, and a warning that the justices will unleash a major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision."

"For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what Sen. Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes," the statement said.

Roberts issued the statement just weeks after he presided over the Senate impeachment trial. Both Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thanked Roberts for his service at the time, and Roberts closed the proceedings by inviting all senators to attend arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

It's a rare public statement from the justice, who has once before directly rebuked Trump for his own criticism of the judiciary, including other justices.

Trump last week tweeted that Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg "should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters." That tweet came after Sotomayor issued a dissenting opinion that questioned the Trump administration's frequent trips to the Supreme Court seeking stays on lower court injunctions temporarily blocking immigration policies, and the court's conservative majority's willingness to grant those stays.

Trump's tweet was largely slammed by the legal community. Carrie Menkel-Meadow of the University of California Irvine School of Law called it "an inappropriate assault," and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley described it as "ridiculous and unhelpful."

"It takes a certain amount of chutzpah for John Roberts to condemn these comments by Chuck Schumer after saying nothing when President Trump attacked two Democratic-appointed justices just last month," the progressive group Demand Justice said in a statement in response to Roberts.

The president has also in recent weeks targeted the foreperson of the Roger Stone jury, a private citizen. Those attacks by the president were rebuffed by the trial judge for Stone's case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia, herself a target of the president's social media commentary. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia came to the defense of Jackson from the president's commentary.

Some judges and prominent legal voices have decried Trump's running attacks as undermining the judicial system.

"We are witnessing a chief executive who criticizes virtually every judicial decision that doesn't go his way and denigrates judges who rule against him, sometimes in very personal terms," U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman of the District of Columbia said in remarks last year. "He seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a co-equal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions."

Conservatives in the past had spoken out against Trump's judicial attacks, but their criticism has generally waned further into Trump's presidency. Other Republicans, like those belonging to anti-Trump groups such as Republicans for the Rule of Law and Checks and Balances, have been sources of a steady stream of criticism on Trump's approach to the judiciary, both regarding the president's activity on social media and behind the scenes.

Some conservatives quickly seized on Schumer's remarks, accusing the top Senate Democrat of threatening the two justices tapped by Trump. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh's appointments to the bench helped shift it to the right, and pro-abortion advocates view Wednesday's arguments in the reproductive rights case as the first step toward chipping away at the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

In a statement, Carrie Severino, president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, called Schumer a hypocrite for his comments after berating Trump for his rhetoric against the judicial system.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican, called on Schumer to apologize. Grassley, who oversaw Gorsuch and Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings as the then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Schumer's remarks "wrong and dangerous."

Robert's comments sparked a firestorm on social media, raising questions about when exactly the chief justice should be responding to criticism of the judiciary and particularly those who sit on his court.

"I agree with the Chief Justice that Senator Schumer's comments were utterly inappropriate," tweeted University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck. "But there's a risk to statements like this—unless the Chief plans to speak out whenever a political leader says something incendiary about the Justices, like accusing them of personal bias."

Kavanaugh Justice Brett Kavanaugh and President Donald Trump. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ

Kavanaugh was criticized at his confirmation hearing in 2018 for his harsh rhetoric, as he accused Democrats of a "political hit" after claims of sexual assault surfaced against him during the proceedings. Kavanaugh denied claims that as a teenager in Maryland he sexually assaulted a fellow high school student, Christine Blasey Ford, at a house party.

At one point, Kavanaugh, raising his voice, said, "And as we all know, in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around."

"I am an optimistic guy. I always try to be on the sunrise side of the mountain, to be optimistic about the day that is coming," he continued. "But today, I have to say that I fear for the future."

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Nate Robson and Mike Scarcella contributed reporting.