John Roberts Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at Rensselaer Polytech in 2017. Photo: Tim Roske

A "strong and independent" judiciary plays a central role in civic education and in promoting "national unity and stability," Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. asserted in an annual year-end report that arrives as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to confront the secrecy of President Donald Trump's tax returns and as Roberts is expected soon to preside over the president's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.

"In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public's need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital," Roberts said in his report. He urged federal judges "to continue their efforts to promote public confidence in the judiciary, both through their rulings and through civic outreach."

The courts, Roberts said, should be celebrated as a "key source" of national unity. "But we should also remember that justice is not inevitable. We should reflect on our duty to judge without fear or favor, deciding each matter with humility, integrity, and dispatch," the chief justice wrote. He continued: "We should each resolve to do our best to maintain the public's trust that we are faithfully discharging our solemn obligation to equal justice under law."

Trump has often lambasted the courts, impugning judges whose rulings have delivered setbacks to the administration, including efforts to impede immigration. Federal judges have largely not tangled publicly with Trump outside of their written opinions. It was only a little more than a year ago when Roberts, in a rare public statement, pushed back against Trump's diatribes about the courts.

"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Roberts said in November 2018. "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."

Roberts's year-end statement comes just weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear two cases that carry perhaps the most personal significance to Trump.

The cases concern the power of state prosecutors and congressional investigators to obtain Trump-related financial information from his accounting firm and two banks. Judges in New York and in the District of Columbia have upheld subpoenas for those documents, and the cases will present the Roberts court with its first chance to assess the president's contention that his personal financial records must remain out of reach.

More immediately, as early as next week, Roberts will be in the national spotlight during Trump's impeachment trial, compelled to preside over the proceedings not by his choosing but by the mandate of the U.S. Constitution. The House, led by Democrats and a largely party-line vote, impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

For several weeks now, lawyers and legal scholars have debated whether and how Roberts will play a substantive role—making any decisions, for instance, to allow witness testimony—or largely serve as a ceremonial leader.

"The country should be less concerned about anything the chief justice is likely to do and more concerned about how fairly his decisions will be portrayed by commentators eager to wring political significance from his every word and action," Williams & Connolly associate Jane Chong, who clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, wrote earlier this month in a piece at The Atlantic.

Read Chief Justice John Roberts's year-end report:

Roberts praised various efforts the courts have undertaken to promote civic education in an era, the chief justice said, where "we have come to take democracy for granted." Roberts touted the availability of opinions online, and he said "judges from coast to coast have made their courthouses available as forums for civic education." He also praised the civic engagement program iCivics that retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor helped establish.

Chief Justice Earl Warren's 1954 unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education "illustrated the power of a judicial decision as a teaching tool," Roberts said.

The Brown decision, at 11 pages, was "short enough that newspapers could publish all or almost all of it and every citizen could understand the court's rationale." Roberts described Brown v. Board of Education as "the great school desegregation case." Many of Trump's nominees for the federal courts faced criticism for initially refusing to state whether the case was correctly decided.

While applauding the extensive civic outreach efforts undertaken by federal appeals courts and district courts, Roberts mentioned only a few programs involving the Supreme Court itself, including partnering with other branches of government and running a 40-year-old unpaid internship program. By contrast, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom offers a range of educational activities and resources for students.

 

Read more:

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Chief Justice Roberts Rebuffs Trump After He Criticizes Judges Again