The Supreme Court may increasingly be in the spotlight – particularly in the growing showdown between judges and the Trump administration – but the justices still enjoy a level of anonymity.
“We’re not as recognizable as you might think,” Chief Justice John Roberts said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a judicial event in New York, Roberts said he was vacationing in Portugal last year when a fellow American approached.
“He’s looking at me and says, `I know you. I know who you are. You’re John Boehner,’” Roberts recalled about being mistaken for the former House speaker. “I had to spend the whole evening pretending to be John Boehner.”
In an hour-long discussion with a federal judge in Roberts’ hometown of Buffalo, the chief justice also said he has no plans to retire or write an autobiography.
“My life is very interesting – to me,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s terribly interesting to anyone else.”
Robert’s dismisses suggestions from Trump, Elon Musk that judges should be impeached
Roberts also sidestepped an opportunity to draw more attention to himself and didn’t go beyond what he’s already said about the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary.
“I’ve already spoken to that,” Roberts responded when U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo asked what he thought about calls for the impeachment of judges. “Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with a decision.”
Roberts was referring to the brief, but unusual, statement he issued in March after President Donald Trump said a judge who tried to stop him from deporting hundreds of Venezuelan migrants should be impeached.
Some fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives, as well as Elon Musk, have called for impeaching some of judges who have issued decisions against Trump’s policies.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a rare public statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
More: Trump demands Supreme Court’s John Roberts rein in judges
Trump has demanded that the Roberts and the Supreme Court intervene to stop federal judges across the country from blocking many of the president’s policies.
Trump and top members of his government have accused judges of trying to take away the president’s power as he’s tried to dramatically downsize and reshape the federal government, stop illegal immigration, abolish diversity initiatives and more.
Asked Wednesday about the importance of an independent judiciary, Roberts said courts are the check on the excesses of Congress and the executive branch.
“And that does require a degree of independence,” he said, drawing sustained applause from the audience.
Rebuke of Trump: Chief Justice John Roberts rebukes Trump after president calls for US judge’s impeachment
Supreme Court’s liberal justices have been more forceful in taking on Trump
Roberts’ comments, however, weren’t as blunt or forceful as those made recently by two of his colleagues.
Earlier this month, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said judges face an “especially challenging moment.”
In comments at a judicial conference, Brown lamented the “relentless attacks and disregard and disparagement” that she said judges deal with on a daily basis.
The threats of retaliation, and even physical violence, she said, seemed aimed at intimidation.
“And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law,” she said.
More: Chief Justice Roberts’ rebuke marks growing Trump showdown with judiciary
In March, Justice Sonia Sotomayor stressed the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law, warning in comments at a law school about “arbitrary power.”
“Arbitrary power is just that, and it means that anyone is going to be subject to unfairness at someone else’s whim,” she said during a conversation with students at Georgetown Law School. “You have to be worried about the day that will turn on you.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on the legal spotlight
