Roberts Touts Court Independence, Silent on Conflicts in Report

Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized the importance of judicial independence in his annual report while avoiding any direct reference to a year of deep tension both within the judiciary and with President Donald Trump.

“The Constitution,” Roberts wrote in the report released Wednesday, granted “life tenure and salary protection to safeguard the independence of federal judges and ensure their ability to serve as a counter-majoritarian check on the political branches. This arrangement, now in place for 236 years, has served the country well.”

Roberts, now in his 21st year as chief justice, usually avoids directly addressing in his year-end report topics animating conversations about the justices and the courts system.

Much of his seven-page report this year focused on how the Declaration of Independence, which next year will mark its 250th anniversary, has served a powerful role in expanding civil rights and developing the nation’s constitutional, statutory, and common laws.

He signed off by quoting former President Calvin Coolidge, who once said that “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.”

“True then; true now,” Roberts said.

The comments followed a turbulent year inside the judiciary, which was thrust into the center of hundreds of legal battles challenging the legality of actions Trump took since returning to office.

Federal judges became the target of frequent verbal attacks from Trump and his allies and faced an uptick in threats and other types of harassment. The Supreme Court’s repeated grants of emergency relief for the Trump administration also fueled unusual discord between the justices and lower courts.

Such tensions spilled into public view in August, when Justice Neil Gorsuch, in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, admonished judges not to “defy” the high court’s rulings. It prompted a round of pushback from lower court judges, one of whom argued that the Supreme Court’s emergency orders are not “models of clarity.”

Uptick in Threats

Roberts’ comments on the Constitution echoed remarks Justice Amy Coney Barrett made in September, in which she argued the country isn’t in a constitutional crisis. The Constitution is “alive and well,” she said as she promoted her new book.

Roberts’ year-end report in 2024, released just weeks after Trump’s reelection, focused on violence, intimidation, disinformation, and threats of flouting judicial orders.

Such actions threaten the “independence of the federal judiciary,” Roberts said, as he cited data from the US Marshals Service that said threats made against judges more than tripled over the past decade.

In September, the Marshals Service issued new data recording more than 500 threats against federal judges over the past 11 months, an increase from the prior fiscal year.

In a disturbing new trend, unsolicited pizza deliveries began arriving at judges’ homes, some of which have been sent in the name of a New Jersey federal judge’s murdered son.

Such threats have exposed the justices as well. In October, a Maryland judge issued an eight-year prison sentence to the person arrested in 2022 near Kavanaugh’s home with weapons following the release of the leaked Supreme Court abortion ruling.

Rare Public Comments

Bloomberg Law has documented more than 200 major legal challenges against Trump’s executive actions, which include everything from stripping temporary protected status for certain migrants to seeking to freeze billions in federal funding.

Trump administration officials frequently decry judges ruling against them as partisans. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch in November described a “war” between the administration and the judiciary.

Roberts during Trump’s first term once rebuked the president over his criticism of an “Obama judge.”

In May, he made another rare public statement after Trump called for impeaching James “Jed” Boasberg—whom Trump called a “Radical Left Lunatic”—after the Washington federal trial judge ruled against his effort to speedily deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Still, the conservative-dominated court has repeatedly granted temporary wins to Trump on its emergency docket, in many instances undercutting lower courts’ judgments against the administration.

The justices in June also curbed district judges’ power to block government policies on a national basis, which Trump called a “monumental victory.”

The justices, however, handed Trump a significant loss on Dec. 23, when a divided court ruled it wouldn’t lift a temporary order blocking Trump from federalizing National Guard troops in Chicago.

The court is due to next year weigh in on Trump’s powers over tariffs, independent agencies, and his attempted rollback of birthright citizenship.