Chief Justice Roberts Says Judicial Independence Is Key to Checking Congress and the President

Chief Justice John Roberts on May 7 emphasized the importance of maintaining the judiciary’s independence as a check on government power during a visit to his birthplace of Buffalo, New York. Roberts, who presides over Supreme Court arguments and oversees the federal judiciary, was participating in an on-stage conversation with U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo amid the 125th anniversary of the federal district court in western New York. Judicial independence is “the only real political-science innovation in our Constitution,” Roberts said. In places like England, where the parliament has existed for 800 years, the judiciary is not independent because it is part of the Parliament. Judges “sat in the House of Lords because Parliament was supreme,” he said....