Usha Vance says Supreme Court, federal judges should be treated with 'respect'

Second lady Usha Vance said the Supreme Court and federal judges should be treated with "respect" amid attacks and criticism they have endured from across the political spectrum.

The second lady also shared her thoughts about her husband Vice President JD Vance's political future and the biggest surprise she learned about President Donald Trump.

Usha Vance, an attorney who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, made the comments in an exclusive interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis.

"We talked about some of the political violence and the rhetoric kind of reaching a fever pitch," Davis said. "Of course, the Supreme Court has also been attacked. You've clerked for two justices who are now both on the Supreme Court. One of your former bosses, Chief Justice John Roberts, called personal criticism of judges dangerous and said that some attacks have gone too far. Do you agree?"

"I have a lot of respect for the justices," Usha Vance said. "I think that they have a hard and challenging job being in the public eye, just like a lot of other people in Congress, in the media, in the executive branch. So, I do want people to treat them with respect, I think that there has been a lot of personalization of feelings towards judges and the courts across the country that probably didn't exist, you know, 150 years ago when they were less in the public eye."

"So, I'm hopeful that people will continue to treat them with the sense of humanity and you know, without the kind of anger that's led to some attacks on judges," she said.

The second lady did not mention the attacks launched by Trump against the Supreme Court and several federal judges who had ruled against him.

Just this past weekend, Trump blasted a judge's ruling that the president couldn't add his name to the Kennedy Center or shut it down for a lengthy renovation project without Congress' approval. Trump attacked the Obama-nominated judge who handed down the decision, suggesting that the ruling was politically motivated and claiming that millions of dollars have been wasted on scheduled repairs to the building.

At Rice University in March, Roberts said that the "personally directed hostility" towards the Supreme Court was dangerous and must stop. Roberts' remarks came on the heels of Trump accusing the chief justice and others on the court of being "disloyal" and "unpatriotic" following it striking down his authority to implement emergency tariffs.

The increase in attacks on the nation's highest court also coincides with the country seeing a growth in violent political rhetoric used by political figures.

In an October 2025 Gallup poll, larger shares of Americans than in years past believe that both political parties and their supporters have gone too far in using inflammatory language to attack their political rivals. 69% of Americans say this about the Republican Party and Republicans, a 16-percentage-point increase from 2011, and 60% believe this applies to the Democratic Party, which is nine points higher than 14 years ago, according to Gallup.

Here are more highlights from the interview:

In a portion of the interview that aired earlier Monday, Usha Vance, who has made childhood literacy one of her main issues as second lady and is rolling out her annual summer reading challenge for its second year, said that artificial intelligence could "potentially" be helpful for children.

"I think the question is how it's deployed," she said.

When asked about the political rhetoric used by Trump and others from both sides of the aisle, the second lady said that her children are not really exposed to screens, but that she and her husband try to teach them how they can serve their community.

"What we focus on is what they can do. So, what's happening in their community? How can they be helpful around their community, their classmates, their school? Where can they volunteer? What can they do to make their local society better?" she said.

"And then we talk about the things that we see. Maybe we encounter protesters on the street. Maybe we see someone flick off a motorcade or something like that. And we talk about it in terms of behavior. What would you do? What do you think the right thing for you to do would be if you were, if you're disagreeing with someone, if you were passing them on the street," the second lady continued.

The evening of the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, Usha Vance was at home while the vice president attended the event and was on stage with Trump before being whisked away by the Secret Service.

Although Usha Vance called what happened "scary," she said she knew her husband was being protected by the Secret Service. She discussed what happened that night with her children in an "age-appropriate" manner.

"I didn't want my kids to hear about it on the playground," she said. "I did talk to them a little bit about it, but I tried to do it in pretty age-appropriate terms -- just say there was something that happened, but everyone was safe, the Secret Service was there. Daddy came home just as planned, you'll see him in the morning, that sort of thing."

The second lady said that the biggest surprise to her as she's gotten to know the president has been his sense of humor and his gentleness toward children.

"He has a really good sense of humor and has a sort of gentleness towards his children, towards other people's families and children," she said. "It shows a lot of caring about what they're going through and what is happening in their lives."

As speculation grows about whether JD Vance, who is viewed by many as the heir apparent to Trump's MAGA movement, will run for president one day, Usha Vance was asked whether she would like to see him as president.

"I am not a particularly politically ambitious person; I would like to see him happy. I would like to see him making contributions that matter and whatever form that takes is a form that I'll be supportive of," she said.