Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. speaks during a fireside chat in Buffalo on Wednesday. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP)
Politics
Donald Trump
Chief justice says courts must be free to check ‘excesses’ of Congress, White House
As judges face attacks from President Donald Trump, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. says government “doesn’t work if the judiciary is not independent.”
May 7, 2025 at 9:38 p.m. EDTYesterday at 9:38 p.m. EDT, 5 min
By Ann E. Marimow
BUFFALO — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Wednesday championed the independence and authority of the nation’s judicial system to serve as a check on Congress and the president at a time when federal courts are being attacked by the Trump administration.
The balance of power between the three, co-equal branches of government “doesn’t work if the judiciary is not independent,” Roberts said during a wide-ranging, lively interview. The job of judges, he added, “is obviously to decide cases, but — in the course of that — check the excesses of Congress or the executive, and that does require a degree of independence.”
His comments drew enthusiastic applause from the audience of lawyers and judges who were keenly aware that President Donald Trump’s second term has led to escalating tensions between executive branch officials pushing the boundaries of presidential power and federal trial court judges whose rulings often slow or scale back those efforts.
