The Chief Justice’s Year-End Report

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts’ year-end report on the judiciary is available on the Supreme Court website. The main theme is the importance of civic education and combating disinformation, and that has been the subject of most of the commentary. Just as important, though, is the Chief’s comment on the importance of judges doing their main job correctly.

I ask my judicial colleagues to continue their efforts to promote public confidence in the judiciary, both through their rulings and through civic outreach. We should celebrate our strong and independent judiciary, a key source of national unity and stability. But we should also remember that justice is not inevitable. We should reflect on our duty to judge without fear or favor, deciding each matter with humility, integrity, and dispatch. As the New Year begins, and we turn to the tasks before us, we should each resolve to do our best to maintain the public’s trust that we are faithfully discharging our solemn obligation to equal justice under law.

Regrettably, too many people, including many judges, see law as simply politics by other means. Over many years of litigating capital cases, there were some judges (now deceased) whom I had no doubt had already decided to reverse the sentence before they opened the cover of the opening brief. That is not judging “without favor.”

While capital cases necessarily require time, there are some judges who make no effort to expedite the cases, and some deliberately delay. The case of California’s notorious serial murderer/rapist/torturer Lawrence “Pliers” Bittaker was fully briefed and ready for decision by the U.S. District Court in July 2005. Judge Terry Hatter then simply sat on the case until Bittaker died of natural causes last month, over 14 years after the case was submitted for decision. That is beyond improper conduct for a judge; it should be impeachable as dereliction of duty, outside the bounds of “good Behaviour.” (U.S. Const. Art. III § 1.)

Though these deficiencies are most obvious in capital cases, they are not limited to them. Ideological bias and excessive delay are all too common. Those who call out such misconduct when we see it are not attacking the judiciary as an institution; it is the judges who commit the misconduct who are undermining public confidence in the judiciary. I hope they will take the Chief’s words to heart.