Chief Justice John Roberts

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday said that a better public understanding of how the U.S. government works could make Americans less susceptible to social media-fueled falsehoods.

In his annual year-end report on the federal courts, Roberts lamented that the country has come to “take democracy for granted” since the founding as civic education has “fallen by the wayside” and pointed to greater knowledge of government workings as an antidote to certain misinformation.

“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 wrote.

Though Roberts did not single out President Trump for criticism, the chief justice has previously rebuked Trump for his attacks on judges. Roberts pushed back in a speech after the president branded a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals “an Obama judge” for a 2018 decision that Trump disagreed with.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, […]