Chief Justice Roberts addresses divisions between justices after several recent SCOTUS skirmishes

Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday urged Georgetown Law's newest graduates to collaborate across ideological lines, commenting that on the Supreme Court, it's necessary for those who disagree strongly to work past their differences. 

It's "really too bad," Roberts said of the environment facing aspiring lawyers. "We're developing a situation where a whole group of young people is growing up having no real sense about how our system of justice works." 

"It's a long job. If you're sort of really at each other's throats with bad feelings and stuff like that, it's just not a good way to function," Roberts said, adding that the justices work to avoid the "toxic" relationships seen in earlier generations of the court.

At times, the issues that frustrate the life-time appointed justices aren't quite as high-minded, Roberts acknowledged. "There's also the matter of the little things," he said. "I mean, if you're sitting next to somebody, and you just can't stand the way he or she kind of taps the chair, you're thinking, 'OK, we'll be here together for 20 years.'

"And you know, you've got to decide, am I going to tell her to stop doing that, or am I going to just get over it, or what? And on a small level, that's kind of the way we across the board have to make those decisions and move on," he said. 

His remarks come as the Supreme Court is slated to hear a number of high-profile cases and emergency appeals filed by the Trump administration in the next few months.

On Thursday, the court will hear arguments over Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, including whether lower courts overstepped by issuing nationwide injunctions blocking the order, as the administration claims in its appeal.