Chief Justice John Roberts is mad as a hornet about all the criticism: Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday blasted what he called “illegitimate activity” aimed at undermining the independence of the judiciary. While facing criticism of contentious court rulings is part of the job for judges, some recent actions have crossed the line, Roberts said in his annual end-of-year report. He outlined four areas of concern: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy court judgments. All four “undermine our Republic, and are wholly unacceptable,” Roberts wrote. It’s pretty clear from the report that what he’s really angry about is the criticism that some of the Justices are corrupt and partisan. But it’s also highly unlikely that he’s talking about Trump who calls them every name in the book if they rule in a way he doesn’t ‘t like. Perhaps that explains this: When we say that Trump “won” this election, it should always have an asterisk – because his candidacy would never have been viable if not for the shameless, repeated, illegitimate interventions by MAGA-aligned, Federalist Society-approved justices on the Supreme Court and the federal bench. In any other country, we would understand those interventions as part of an autocratic takeover, not a democratic victory. He actually claims in his report that they have absolutely no political bias. As recently as 2000, three quarters of Americans approved of the Supreme Court. Even more remarkably, there was no partisan divide; Democrats and Republicans were nearly equally approving. But, in stair steps since…