US Chief Justice Roberts defends judiciary as ‘independent’

By Robert Barnes (c) 2018, The Washington Post, Nov 22, 2018 -  
WASHINGTON - The chief justice of the United States and the president of the United States engaged in an extraordinary war of words Wednesday over the independence of the federal judiciary, with Chief Justice John Roberts issuing a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump’s criticism of an “Obama judge” who ruled against the administration.  

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in a statement released by the court’s public information office. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”  

Roberts’ Thanksgiving eve statement ended: “That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”The chief justice is an aggressive defender of the judiciary and has frequently expressed concern about attacks on its impartiality, whether they come from the left or the right. In 2010, he called the timing of President Barack Obama’s criticism of the court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC during the president’s State of the Union speech “very troubling.”