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.

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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

  • LOGIC💣@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “This arrangement, now in place for 236 years, has served the country well,” Roberts wrote in the report, which was released by the Supreme Court hours before the start of the new year.

    “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.”

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    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.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    He’s mad that the lower courts aren’t completely corrupt and the poors aren’t worshipping his decisions.

  • Sharkticon@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    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.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      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.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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          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.

  • Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    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.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        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?

    • Janx@piefed.social
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      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…

  • Gates9@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    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.

  • Seaguy05@lemmy.world
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    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.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    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.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        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.