Chief Justice John Roberts pushes for judicial independence in history-heavy report
Chief Justice John Roberts touted the independence of the federal judiciary as a “counter-majoritarian check” and urged Americans rattled by partisan politics to keep faith with the Constitution in an annual report Wednesday that steered clear of direct discussion of modern controversies.
Roberts’ history-heavy statement made no mention of Donald Trump, nor the intense conflict that has cropped up between federal courts and the White House since his second inauguration nearly a year ago.
Trump has questioned the legitimacy of courts that paused his policies and called for the impeachment of judges who ruled against him.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/31/politics/john-roberts-year-end-reportOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
44 replies
Well maybe he should uphold the Constitution instead of wipe his ass with it.
That dude is going down in history as a giant asshole that was bribed heavily.
Justice Taney would like a word.
Thomas would have a word, but he is a strict follower of "Keep Your Mouth Shut, and Don't Prove You're An Idiot" philosophy. His wife has probably prohibited him from speaking, and he's scared shitless of that Bulldog.
This is not the time or the place. /s
No no you see, when he talks about "judicial independence" he means "judicial independence from the Constitution"
he will have to confer what his billionaire donors/ or putin thinks.
Give every new Justice a bidet when they take office, so they don't grab for the nearest parchment.
Probably should have thought about that before you made the president a king
Had to double check the source, to make sure this wasn't The Onion.
Came here to confirm my exact sentiment.
We are circling the drain. Any day now.
"It was only when I started giving Trump all of the power that is supposed to lie in the Supreme Court that the arrangement started to fail," Roberts continued. "I thought I could get an even greater position of power by kowtowing to the demands of Trump, but now he says that my ass isn't as supple as it used to be, and that I keep losing concentration when I'm servicing him. But what can I do? He keeps falling asleep in the middle. Justice Thomas said the same thing. I knew people had said that with Trump, loyalty is a one-way street, but it's shocking to experience it myself. I used to have all the power in the world, but now I just really feel used by this whole ordeal."
Ya know it's kinda funny that I'm finding I agree with Justice Roberts, I think it would be great for the Judiciary to be a 'separate but equal' "branch" of our government. No, really, this is a great idea. Like we could have like maybe three, separate but equal branches, maybe this is a stretch, but we could call them, umm, The Judiciary, The Legislative, and the Executive Branches.
What if each of them actually did their job? And only their job? Or am I being too fantastical?
And maybe that “separate but equal” can serve as a check and balance to keep any branch from abusing their power …. Or is that off the deep end?
That sounds great! The only way I could envision it failing is if one branch gave another outsized power in a partisan bid, while another refused to be a check on other branches... Boy, that would fly in the face of the Constitution and introduce a fundamental crisis for our country...
Yep, we got oodles of that going on, right now. :-(
lol that’s great
I suspect he's more concerned with potential congressional action to limit corruption or in imposing term limits on Supreme Court Justices than he is in any powers that Donald Trump has taken upon himself.
IF Dems ever take power back, and wield it responsibly and with purpose this time, they'll expand the court by at least four seats, impose term limits, AND impeach Thomas, and probably Alito, and then prosecute Thomas and his bulldog wife for corruption and sedition.
That's not what will happen.
I'm holding out hope. This will be our absolute last chance, and the Dems can't drop the ball this time, like they did during the Biden administration.
If we can pull off a Congressional bloodbath in the Midterms, the incoming people will know that they are being elected to be warriors, and will demand bold action from Dem leadership, starting with the resignation of Schmuck Schumer, and probably Jeffries, who isn't much better.
Or not, and Democratic America will be over. Then the only chance will be violence.
I absolutely agree in principle. This court however is corrupt as all fucking hell. I want a court that tells me no when I want to infringe on the freedom of others, not one that says anything is ok when the president does it. Also I want one that actually believes in precedent like Roe.
Unless the precedent is abhorrent.
But that's part of believing in precedent. It's giving due weight to precedent, not blind obedience. Poorly decided cases have been overturned before, but what we see today is a society in which it's believed by right wing groups that any decision they don't like can be worn down. Obergefell was decided in 2015 and a challenge against it from someone who lost her job that year made its way to the supreme court in 2025. This is because attacking Roe in that way allowed it to be weakened then defeated. Every addition to the court that I remember was asked the same question about Roe and gave the same answer, that it was settled law. You couldn't make it through the senate confirmation without that. Meanwhile you've got one justice who wants to overturn every civil right that cited Roe.
The judiciary weathered the overturning of Steporford, and it can likely weather overturning a lot of the Roberts court decisions, but precedent exists so judges, lawmakers, lawyers, and citizens can understand or reasonably approximate what the law is and so we don't waste a fuck ton of time and money litigating things we should be able to reasonably predict. These days everything goes to the supreme court because anything goes.
I'll think about this, I'm getting sleepy right now.
He's mad that the lower courts aren't completely corrupt and the poors aren't worshipping his decisions.
Fuck you, you lying fuck... YOU'RE literally the driving force for why we have lost faith
I’m sympathetic to the idea that we don’t need a “Supreme Court”. We have a representative legislature. They don’t even follow the constitution or precedents. Frankly the institution is illegitimate.
Great idea. How about we require that any partisan judge or lawyer has to retire and is ineligible for the bench and the bar?
What a fucking clown
This dude will go down in history as the man who put the final nail in the coffin of the “republic” all representation of the people died with citizens united. Our government is now literally occupied by Israel and oligarchs a lot of whom are immigrants from South Africa
On the other hand the only reason I don't want Roberts to drop dead right this second is because I'm afraid of who would replace him.
Jeanne Pirro
A report full of right-wing lies. Might be worth mentioning that point.
What Roberts really doesn't want is for Congress to exercise its constitutional power to regulate the workings of the Supreme Court and to establish ethical standards backed by law.
John if you get on your knees right now and pray for mercy and beg forgiveness. The American people will be swift with their justice and grant you an early end of your life long term.
Says the unabashedly biased, bought and paid for chief justice
Sorry bud, an indepdent judicary ship sailed a long time ago. As soon as people started labeling judges as liberal or conversative, Democractic or Republican appointed, etc.
This kind of wording confirms that judges are just part of the political process.
This is just a prep for when the GOP loses significantly in the mid terms and the pendulum swings back against them. There is no intent to not be in lock step with project 2025, it is just a coincidence. I hope there's significant restructure of the supreme court soon as more than half of them are bought and paid for.
TRAITOR
the US constitution expressly allows slavery. fuck the constitution.
It will go a long way of making sure that happens as soon as he dies in 3 years.
Hard to keep faith when the judiciary has zero ability to complete the executive to obey it.