"The Judiciary's power to manage its 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," Roberts announced in the 2021 report.
Roberts had upheld the independence of the judiciary in the past, notably in 2020, when then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) threatened justices that they "will pay the price" if they judge against abortion.
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On that occasion — just the latest in Schumer's attacks on the Court — Roberts announced: "Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, but they are also dangerous."
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Now, with a conclusion looming in Dobbs. v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which could reverse the Court's holding in Roe v. Wade (1973), with oral arguments January 7 on Biden's vaccine mandates, and with Democrats upset that Biden's court-packing commission did not suggest radical changes outright, Roberts has issued a warning against political intervention.
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In his report, Roberts tackled the matter of judicial recusal, after reporting in 2021 by the Wall Street Journal that over 130 federal judges had illegally failed to recuse themselves from cases in which they had financial interests. He also discussed judicial misconduct in the workplace, and the question of assigning patent cases in the federal court system.
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Roberts said that while those amount to "less than three-hundredths of one percent of the 2.5 million civil cases filed in the district courts" during that period, the federal judiciary must take the matter seriously.
"We are duty-bound to strive for 100% compliance because public trust is essential, not incidental, to our function," he wrote.
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Roberts stated that the Journal did not report any occurrences in which a judge acted in a way that financially benefited him- or herself. The chief justice proposed increased training and updated technology systems to improve compliance with the ethics policies.
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In 2021, Roberts notably refused to preside over the Democrats' second shot to impeach President Donald Trump, who had already left office by the time the Senate took up the trial. He likewise pushed back against then-President Trump's use of the term "Obama judge" in 2018, arguing that there are no "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges."
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