Chief Justice Wants You To Know He Has The Utmost Contempt For You
The courts can regulate themselves... as proven by all these scandals!
(Screenshot via PBS NewsHour/YouTube)
The federal judiciary is facing a credibility backlash. The “least dangerous branch” no longer gets a pass from Americans, who seem to be waking up to a four-year run of ghost hunters and mere associates getting judicial nominations, bombastic opinions unmoored from any legal precedent, and the accelerating erosion of a half century of foundational precedent. Over half of the country now disapproves of the Supreme Court! That was once an unthinkable figure!
For John Roberts, the consummate institutionalist, this presents a clear threat to the legitimacy of the entire system. Certainly he must have a plan?
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
He does, and that plan is “f**k you.”
Without even nodding toward the broader legitimacy crisis his tenure faces, the Chief Justice used his annual year-end report on the state of the judiciary to identify and then callously wave away a couple other major judicial debacles on his watch: the Wall Street Journal report on rampant recusal failures across the judiciary and the workplace harassment allowed to flourish in a culture functionally granting judges sovereignty over their own affairs.
To these issues, Roberts admonishes the nation to mind its own business.
After taking the first two-and-a-half pages of the 2021 report to wax philosophic about William Howard Taft, Roberts explained that these scandals would be dealt with… through some vague, totally unaccountable, internal action.
Sponsored
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Not every ethical lapse in the WSJ report amounted to a gross, intentional breach, but there were some major doozies in there. One might think that the Chief Justice of the United States would express support for impeachment proceedings or something. You would be wrong:
That means more classtime, webinars, and consultations. But it also requires greater attention to promoting a culture of compliance, even when busy dockets keep judicial calendars full.
That should handle it. Nothing impacts a culture like another webinar.
What of judges who harass clerks? Surely they will face referrals for impeachment or fines or at least censure? Hilarious!
(1) revise its codes of conduct and other published guidance to delineate more clearly the principles of appropriate behavior; (2) strengthen and streamline its internal procedures for identifying and correcting misconduct; and (3) expand its training programs to raise awareness of conduct issues.
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
It’s unclear how what “and correcting” entails but I’m feeling another webinar!
Roberts also says some stuff about case assignment that likewise concludes with “stop asking questions.”
It’s almost as though the thrust of the report had less to do with these important issues and more to do with sending the thinly veiled message to the rest of the country that Roberts harbors nothing but contempt for the concept of oversight. Whether it’s these issues or some more foundational reform, Roberts doesn’t want to hear from the other branches and, by extension, the American people.
And somehow, throughout an entire rant about the strength of the judiciary’s capacity for self-regulation, Roberts never once acknowledges that the Supreme Court still has no binding ethical code. None. Nothing provides more confidence than knowing the most important decisions in the country depend on Brett Kavanaugh’s sense of decency!
Roberts teased in the past that the Court might get around to creating some sort of SCOTUS ethics, but then never did it. So if you aren’t enthusiastic about a bunch of webinars and vague pledges to “change the culture”… take heart!
He probably won’t even follow through on these meager efforts.
Happy New Year, everybody!
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
