“Judicial independence is crucial,” Roberts, the leader of the Supreme Court and the entire federal judiciary, said at a gathering of judges and lawyers in his hometown.
He described the creation of three co-equal branches of government as the Constitution’s one innovation. “That innovation doesn’t work if the judiciary is not independent,” he said.
The 70-year-old chief justice largely repeated things he has said previously. But his comments, in response to questions from another federal judge, drew applause from the 600 people who gathered to mark the 125th anniversary of federal courts in the Western District of New York.
Asked about comments from Trump and his allies supporting the impeachment of judges because of their rulings, Roberts largely repeated the statement he issued in March. “Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with a decision,” he said.
Of course it matters. States and laws work the way the general consensus says they work. One of the reasons Trump can get away with 90% of what he does is because public servants got fed the idea that the president of the US is above the law.
Shouldn’t laws be (almost) immutable? As in the only way they can be altered is through the courts or by Congress?
If that isn’t the case, and things being as they are, the law is meaningless when it comes to Trump. He ignores rulings he doesn’t like, outright disobeys court-ordered actions, lies to the court (through lawyers) and lies to Congress and Americans all the time.
In theory yes. In practice like all social conventions they change based on what most people believe they are.