We do not need any more lectures about an independent judiciary from Chief Justice Roberts

By Fred Bates - February 14, 2025

    In my post on January 7, 2025, I stated that Chief Justice Roberts had made misleading claims about the threat to judicial independence in his 2024 Year End Report. I not only stand by what I stated in that post, I will expand upon it. Agreed, judicial independence is a very important component of our constitutional form of government. Agreed, violence and intimidation directed against judges poses a threat to judicial independence and the rule of law. As I also noted in my post, the threat to judicial independence is not the greatest threat to democracy and the rule of law. The greatest threat to democracy and the rule of law is the lack of any guardrails imposed on our judiciary by oversight from within the judiciary itself or from the executive and legislative branches of government. The lack of any guardrails or oversight over our federal judges has fostered a culture of corruption in our federal judiciary that has completely undermined our Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law.  

    Chief Justice Roberts has made it a habit of reminding us of the independence of the judiciary in his Year End Reports and many other public statements. We get it Chief Justice Roberts. We don't need any more lectures from you or any other federal judges for that matter about an independent judiciary. When Chief Justice Roberts and other judges talk about an independent judiciary, what they are really saying is that they do not want to have any guardrails or oversight on what actions they take. They use the independence of the judiciary as a shield to discourage, intimidate, and deter the executive and legislative branches of government from imposing guardrails or oversight on the judiciary as is required by the Constitution.      

   Chief Justice Roberts and other judges should stop constantly lecturing Americans about the importance of an independent judiciary. We get it! What Chief Justice Roberts and other judges should be doing is giving Americans assurance that they are committed to upholding the rule of law and precedent. I have my doubts that this will happen because the rule of law and precedent does not seem to be high on judges' list of priorities. This is especially true in our federal courts.