Don’t Be Fooled by the Used Car Salesman Smile of Chief Justice John Roberts
Chief Justice John Roberts has been recently quoted as saying that the nation’s federal courts are doing a better job of policing themselves which he called essential for the ability of the judicial branch to maintain its independence. Roberts also said that the judiciary’s power to manage its own internal affairs “insulates courts from inappropriate political influence and is crucial to preserving public trust in its work as a separate and co-equal branch of government.” https://nypost.com/2022/01/01/chief-justice-john-roberts-warns-against-inappropriate-political-influence-in-federal-courts/. Roberts must be delusional if he thinks what the courts are doing are “preserving public trust” since the same article in which he was quoted pointed out that the latest Gallup poll showed only a 40 percent approval by the public of the court’s performance, which is down 20 points from two decades ago and a new low for that survey. Roberts then went on to say that the federal courts need to do a better job at spotting potential conflicts that should require judges to take themselves off cases involving companies in which they or members of their families own stock. The article pointed out that a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that 131 judges participated in 685 such matters for a certain time period. Roberts’ excuse was that many likely were the result of “unintentional failures” in checking for financial conflicts. However, in asserting the “unintentional failures” defense, Roberts simply averred that the judges violated an ethics rule but he conveniently failed to mention that the 131 judges broke the law in doing so, and of course, weren’t prosecuted for breaking the law. https://www.wsj.com/articles/131-federal-judges-broke-the-law-by-hearing-cases-where-they-had-a-financial-interest-11632834421. The fact that Roberts conveniently omitted this very important fact speaks volumes about his lack of integrity and his propensity to sugar coat improprieties by federal judges…. Read More