The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) supports Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement that the “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”  The Chief Justice is right.  We have three separate but equal branches of government.  An independent judiciary serves as one of many check-and-balance safeguards to protect against anarchy and ensure a functional republic.  Any rhetoric suggesting that the judicial branch can be controlled by the executive branch should be corrected and then swiftly extinguished.

BASF expresses its thanks for jurists who exercise independent judgment under the rule of law, who remain steadfast in their oath to “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich,” and who “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent” upon them as judges “under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”