SCOTUS justices 'don't work as Democrats or Republicans,' Roberts says
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said on Wednesday that he is concerned the public wrongly perceives Supreme Court justices as making policy rather than making legal decisions.
Roberts spoke at New England Law Boston, report the Washington Post, MassLive and Wicked Local. How Appealing notes the coverage.
People “don’t have a good understanding of how we’re different from other branches of government,” Roberts said. He pointed to discussion of the court’s rulings in which justices are said to be “in favor of this” or “in favor of that.”
“In fact, our ruling is that whoever does get to decide this or that is allowed to do it, and that it’s not unconstitutional, that it’s consistent with the law,” Roberts said. “But we often have no policy views on the matter at all, and that’s an important distinction.”
Misguided public perceptions may be fueled by an increasingly partisan confirmation process, Roberts said. “We don’t work as Democrats or as Republicans,” he said.
Roberts has been targeted by some GOP presidential candidates, likely because of his decisions upholding the Affordable Care Act, the Washington Post reports in this story. Ted Cruz said during one of the debates that Roberts’ nomination was a mistake.
“You know, we’re frustrated as conservatives,” said Cruz, who once clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. “We keep winning elections, and then we don’t get the outcome we want.”
