Trump fires back as chief justice defends independent judiciary
Chief Justice Roberts ‘is sending up a signal that Trump has gone beyond the pale of responsible political discourse’
New York — US chief justice John Roberts defended the independence of the federal judiciary on Wednesday a day after President Donald Trump called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an “Obama judge” — but Trump rejected the rebuke, chided Roberts and launched a new round of attacks. The remarks by Roberts represents his first public response to Trump over the Republican president’s persistent criticism of the federal courts. Opponents of Trump have called his criticism of judges an attack on the rule of law in the US. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts, a conservative who was appointed by former Republican president George W Bush, said in a statement released by the US supreme court in response to a news media inquiry. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we s...
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