Chief Justice John Roberts, the head of the federal judiciary, recently delivered a forceful defense of the Supreme Court, pushing back against growing public perceptions that he and his colleagues are "political actors" and that the nation's highest court operates as a political institution rather than a legal one. Speaking at a conference for judges and attorneys in Hershey, Pa., Roberts argued that Americans increasingly misunderstand the judiciary's role and wrongly view justices as partisan actors advancing policy agendas.