Chief Justice Roberts says judicial independence is key to checking
Congress and the president
[May 08, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
BUFFALO (AP) — Amid attacks on federal judges who have slowed President
Donald Trump's agenda, Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday defended
judicial independence as necessary to “check the excesses of the
Congress or the executive.”
“Judicial independence is crucial,” Roberts, the leader of the Supreme
Court and the entire federal judiciary, said at a gathering of judges
and lawyers in his hometown.
He described the creation of three co-equal branches of government as
the Constitution's one innovation. “That innovation doesn’t work if the
judiciary is not independent,” he said.
The 70-year-old chief justice largely repeated things he has said
previously. But his comments, in response to questions from another
federal judge, drew applause from the 600 people who gathered to mark
the 125th anniversary of federal courts in the Western District of New
York.
Asked about comments from Trump and his allies supporting the
impeachment of judges because of their rulings, Roberts largely repeated
the statement he issued in March. "Impeachment is not how you register
disagreement with a decision,” he said.
Roberts also said he has no plans to retire as he nears the 20th
anniversary of his confirmation to the nation's highest court.
His appearance in the city where he was born followed — by less than a
week — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's forceful condemnation of attacks
on judges.
In a speech to a conference of judges and lawyers in Puerto Rico,
Jackson talked about “the relentless attacks and disregard and
disparagement that judges around the country, and perhaps many of you,
are now facing on a daily basis.”
Jackson, in remarks posted on the court's website, described the attacks
as “the elephant in the room” in the course of a talk that did not once
mention Trump.
The president, senior aide Stephen Miller and billionaire Elon Musk have
railed at judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, sometimes
with highly personal attacks. Trump called the judge who temporarily
halted deportations using an 18th century wartime law a “radical left
lunatic.”
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Chief Justice John Roberts speaks during a fireside chat at the
125th anniversary celebration of the United States District court
for the Western District of New York, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in
Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)
There also have been unsettling attempts at intimidation in the form
of unwanted pizza deliveries to the homes of judges and their
children. Some of those deliveries have been sent in the name of
Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Anderl
was shot dead at the family home by a disgruntled lawyer in 2020.
“These deliveries are threats intended to show that those seeking to
intimidate the targeted judge know the judge’s address or their
family members’ addresses,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote Tuesday
in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash
Patel.
Trump has largely spared the high court, which is weighing several
emergency appeals of lower court rulings that have gone against him.
The president has a mixed record in front of the justices so far. On
Tuesday, the court’s conservative majority revived the
administration’s ban on transgender military service members while
court challenges to the policy continue. The three liberal justices
dissented.
But the court also has temporarily halted some deportations of
alleged Venezuelan gang members under an 18th century wartime law.
And the justices also said deportations can’t take place without
giving people a chance to challenge them in court.
Next week, the court is hearing arguments over Trump’s executive
order that would deny citizenship to American-born children of
people who are in the country illegally. The Justice Department
wants the court to narrow lower court orders so that the
restrictions could be enforced in more than half the country, while
the cases continue.
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