Amid rising concerns about the health of the nation’s democracy, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. expressed faith Wednesday that the nation’s founding charters and key principles are proving resilient.
Quoting President Calvin Coolidge, the Supreme Court’s leader wrote in a year-end report that as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the rule of law remains alive and well.
“‘Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken,’” Roberts quoted Coolidge as saying.
He added in his own words: “True then; true now.”
The comments came in Roberts’s annual report on the state of the judiciary, which largely sidestepped contemporary controversies and events at a moment of political upheaval. Many of those concerns have revolved around President Donald Trump’s push to expand executive authority and wield power critics say belongs to other branches of the government.
Instead of those issues, Roberts wrote mostly about history — the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the ideas that inspired the documents and the nation’s struggles to fulfill the charters’ ideals.
Roberts urged judges to remain true to that legal bedrock.
“Those of us in the Third Branch must continue to decide the cases before us according to our oath, doing equal right to the poor and to the rich, and performing all of our duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution and laws of the United States,” Roberts wrote.
Roberts made no mention of topics that have animated others in the judiciary and legal observers over the last year: threats against judges, the Trump administration’s alleged defiance of court orders or critiques by lower-court judges of how the Supreme Court has ruled on its emergency docket.
Roberts did decry threats against judges in last year’s annual report and pushed back on President Donald Trump’s calls to impeach a federal judge who ruled against him. In March, Roberts issued a rare statement saying “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
In November, Congress boosted funding for security at the Supreme Court, but did not extend additional money for the protection of lower-court judges.
Threats against federal judges spiked in the months after Trump began his second term in January. Through the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, the U.S. Marshals Service has investigated 133 threats agains federal judges, according to agency statistics.
Trump and his allies have sharply criticized rulings against the president’s policies and called for the removal of some judges. Dozens of judges who have ruled against Trump have received unsolicited pizza deliveries at their homes. Threats against judges have also come from the left.
Roberts’s report comes as the Supreme Court takes up a series of high-profile cases involving key tests of Trump’s agenda. In November, the justices appeared skeptical that Trump’s sweeping tariffs were legal. Earlier this month, the justices seemed ready to allow Trump greater authority to fire the heads of independent agencies without cause.
Next month, the justices will hear arguments over whether the president can dismiss Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, which would allow the president to reshape the Fed and its vast powers over the economy.
Decisions in all three cases are expected by the summer.
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