Judge John Roberts emphasized the importance of an independent judiciary on Wednesday in comments given at a time when Trump government officials are often criticizing the courts that blocked their policies.
Roberts, speaking of a public event in Buffalo, New York, said that an independent judiciary is a fundamental feature of the US constitutional system that did not exist in other countries when it was founded.
“In our Constitution … the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separated from others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and obviously overthrow acts of Congress or acts of the president,” he said.
“And this innovation does not work if … the judiciary is not independent,” he added. “Your job is, of course, to decide cases, but throughout the excesses of Congress or the Executive, and this requires a degree of independence.”
Roberts, answering a question from Buffalo -based US district judge Lawrence Vilardo, was not specifically addressing President Donald Trump, and his comments were light compared to strong observations, liberal judge Ketanji Brown Jackson did last week.
Vilardo also asked Roberts about Trump calls and his allies for impeachment from the judges who decided against the government.
Roberts pointed to a statement that he had issued on the subject and has not elaborated even more.
“Well, I already said that. You know, impeachment is not how you record disagreements in decisions,” said Roberts.
Referring to the cases of the Supreme Court in appeal, Vilardo said, “That’s why you are, right?”
“That’s what we’re there for,” said Roberts.
Last year, Roberts was the author of the majority of the opinion when the court ruled that Trump had some criminal procedure immunity for acts taken during his first term in a decision that increased Trump’s reelection offer.
The court listens to oral arguments next week about Trump’s effort to close the constitutional right to the citizenship of the first -person right to anyone born in the United States.
Roberts, a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005, was in Buffalo to mark the 125th anniversary of the US District Court for New York Western district.
He spent his early years in Buffalo, he noted, but after moving to Indiana, he moved his Buffalo Bills rings to Chicago Bears. This admission led to some boos of the audience on Wednesday.