Story by Mary Papenfuss
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in remarks Wednesday emphasized the vital importance to the nation of an independent judiciary in what appeared to be a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump, though he didn’t mention the president’s name.
The judiciary’s role, Roberts emphasized in comments at a public event in Buffalo, New York, is to “decide cases but, in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive.”
He noted: “In our Constitution … the judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president.”
He cautioned: “That innovation doesn’t work if … the judiciary is not independent,” Roberts warned.
“Its job is to obviously decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive, and that does require a degree of independence.”
His comments drew a long round of applause from the judges and lawyers at the event in Western New York to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the federal court there. Roberts was born in Buffalo but moved to Indiana when he was 10 years old.
Trump has repeatedly, insultingly attacked judges whose decisions he disagrees with –often triggering chilling threats against them by his supporters– and has called for their impeachment.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the relentless attacks against the judiciary appear aimed at undermining judicial independence – which she said is essential to democracy.
“A society in which judges are routinely made to fear for their own safety or livelihood … is one that has substantially departed from the norms” of a democratic system, she warned. She did not mention Trump’s name.
Asked Wednesday about calls by Trump and some of his allies to impeach judges who rule against his administration, Roberts emphasized that he had issued a statement on that issue earlier this year.
“Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with decisions,” he repeated to the crowd.
Roberts, a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005, authored the controversial opinion when the court ruled that Trump had some immunity from criminal prosecution for acts considered part of his official duties.
The court hears oral arguments next week on Trump’s aim to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship for anyone born in the United States.
Although I support most of what Trump is doing, Justice Roberts is 100% correct in the need to keep the judiciary independent. If it was coupled with a message that a politically motivated judiciary is also a danger to our society, maybe he’d get more credence.