NEW YORK, June 30: The anger and scorn spewed out by the extreme right Republicans at the chief justice of US supreme court, John Roberts, following his tie breaking vote in favour of President Obama’s healthcare law has made him jest that he would be spending the summer in an “impregnable fortress”.

A report in New York Daily News says that judge Roberts joked about his “need for a safe hideout, then wryly observed that his commitment to teach a class in Malta — an island in the Mediterranean Sea — was “a good idea”.

It was a reminder of similar partisan feelings in Pakistan on party basis during several controversial court rulings.

The US chief justice, a conservative appointed by former president George W. Bush, said at a federal judicial conference in Pennsylvania on Friday how he would spend his time until the court goes back in session in October, following his tie breaking vote in favour of the healthcare law which the conservatives despie.

The Daily News said Roberts declined to answer questions about the decision, the Supreme Court’s most important ruling since it awarded the disputed 2000 presidential election to Bush over Al Gore. But he did say he hopes his court will be remembered “for protecting equal justice under the law.”