Independent's Day

This story didn’t get much attention.  It’s not “news,” per se, but nonetheless very important, I think.  It did receive brief coverage Wednesday on CNN, and then the next morning some short mention on MSNBC and ABC's "Good Morning, America."
 
On Wednesday, Chief Justice Roberts did a “fireside chat” with a NY judge.  It was a fairly freewheeling conversation, getting into some personal matters with the Chief Justice, and nothing overly substantive, since justices on the high court never want to be pinned down on anything specific.  However, at one point, Roberts was asked about the matter of judicial independence.  And among the things he said were –
 
“In our Constitution, judges and the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law — and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the President. And that innovation doesn't work if the judiciary is not independent.”  And he later added, “Its job is to obviously decide cases — but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or of the executive. And that does require a degree of independence.”
 
On CNN, their legal reporter commented about Roberts's response that as under-stated as his words may have sounded, the actual substance underneath them was anything but low-kay, saying – "He knows the weight of every word, Kristen. The words there carry a lot of weight — and come amid major tensions with Trump. So significant to come from the Chief Justice.”

While it's a shame that this didn't get covered more on the news, happily it’s one of those rare events where – even if it doesn’t get news coverage – it's a problem for Trump.  Because the point of the story isn’t that other people know about it, but that John Roberts and the SCOTUS justices actually feel this way. 

Well, at least some of the SCOTUS justices, I presume.  I don't hold out any great expectations for Justices Thomas and Alito -- they did vote as part of the 9-0 ruling against Trump on a recent deportation case, but I always look at things like that as a pleasant bonus surprise.  But still, when it comes to judicial independence, I've written here previously that I have to believe Supreme Court justices are among the understandably more arrogant people in the world, with lifetime appointments to determine what the law is.  And it's hard to imagine that most of them, let alone all of them, don't like it when any branch or anyone dares tries to take their independence, their specific Constitutional function away.  So, it was good to see the Chief Justice make his point publicly.  Whether or not how much coverage it got on the news.
 
Here's a brief news report on the event, with the segment of note coming around the 30-second mark.