Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned on Tuesday that the United States must maintain “judicial independence” just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Roberts explained his concerns in his annual report on the federal judiciary.
“The nature of judicial work is not to please everyone. Most cases have winners and losers. Every administration suffers defeats in the court system—sometimes in matters that have a major impact on executive or legislative power or other major topics. case,” Robert wrote in the 15-page report. “Nevertheless, over the past few decades, the court’s decisions, popular or not, have been followed, and the country has avoided the deadlock that plagued the 1950s and 1960s.”
“Over the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised concerns about public disregard for federal court rulings,” Roberts said, without naming Trump, President Joe Biden or any specific lawmakers. “These dangerous suggestions, no matter how piecemeal, must be firmly rejected. Judicial independence deserves to be defended. As my late colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, an independent judiciary “is essential to the rule of law in any country. Vital” but it is “vulnerable” to attack; if society’s laws exist to serve without care being taken to ensure their preservation, then it will be shattered. “
“I urge all Americans to appreciate the legacy of our founding generation and cherish its staying power,” Roberts said.
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Roberts also quoted Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes saying that the three branches of government “must cooperate successfully” to “make possible the effective operation of those branches of government designed to preserve the interests of liberty with impartiality and independence of justice.” .
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor stand on the House floor as they await President Biden’s annual State of the Union address before a joint session on March 7, 2024 message. (Sean Hugh-Poole/Getty Images)
“The strength of our political system and economy depends on the rule of law,” Roberts wrote.
A landmark Supreme Court immunity ruling authored by Roberts and another high court ruling halting Trump’s disqualification from voting were considered major victories for the Republican candidate on his way to the election. The immunity decision drew criticism from Democrats including Biden, who later called for term limits and enforceable ethics rules after criticism of undisclosed travel and gifts from wealthy donors to some judges.
Some Democrats and a Republican lawmaker have urged Biden to ignore a Trump-appointed judge’s decision last year to revoke the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. Biden declined to take executive action to get around the ruling, and the Supreme Court later granted the White House a stay on sales of the drug.
The Supreme Court convenes on February 5, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Mandel Yan/AFP via Getty Images)
The high court’s conservative majority also ruled last year that Biden’s massive student loan debt relief effort constituted an unlawful use of executive power.
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Roberts and Trump clashed in 2018 when the chief justice rebuked the president for denouncing a judge who rejected his immigration asylum policy as an “Obama judge.”
In 2020, Roberts criticized comments made by New York Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer while the Supreme Court was considering a high-profile abortion case.
In Tuesday’s letter, Roberts told the story of King George III’s decision to strip colonial judges of their lifetime appointments, an order that “was not well received.” Trump is now preparing to kick off his second term as president with an ambitious conservative agenda, some of which may be subject to legal challenges and ultimately make it to the courts, whose conservative majority includes Trump during his first term. Three judges appointed.
Even if the court’s rulings are unpopular or signal a failure for the presidential administration, the rest of the government must be willing to enforce them to ensure the rule of law, the chief justice wrote generally in his annual report. Roberts pointed to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that abolished schools and required federal enforcement in the face of resistance from Southern governors.
Chief Justice John Roberts, left, and Associate Justice Samuel Alito sit with other members of the Supreme Court in the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 7, 2022 (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
He also said that “attempts to intimidate judges into ruling on cases are inappropriate and should be strongly discouraged.”
Roberts wrote that while public officials and others have the right to criticize the ruling, they should also be aware that their comments could “trigger dangerous reactions in others.”
Threats against federal judges have more than tripled in the past decade, according to U.S. Marshals Service statistics. Roberts wrote that state court judges in Wisconsin and Maryland were killed in their homes in 2022 and 2023.
“Violence, intimidation and contempt directed at judges because of their work undermines our republic and is completely unacceptable,” he wrote.
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Roberts also noted that disinformation about court rulings poses a threat to judges’ independence and said social media could amplify distortions and even be used by “hostile foreign state actors” to exacerbate divisions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
