Eyes on judges critical of Supreme Court

The Republican chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees appealed to Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday to look into whether federal judges who responded to a New York Times questionnaire with criticism of the Supreme Court had violated their ethics obligations.

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Jordan: Writes letter of concern

“We are deeply concerned that these public attacks on the court from sitting federal judges damage the public’s faith and confidence in our judicial system,” Sen Charles E Grassley of Iowa and Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote in a letter to Justice Roberts. “When judges call into question the legitimacy of their own branch of government, they erode faith in the institution itself.”

The letter comes weeks after the Times published an article in which dozens of federal judges accused the Supreme Court of mishandling its emergency docket, complaining that its orders were too brief, opaque and vague for the lower courts to follow — particularly in the many cases where the justices issued emergency orders, but offered no reasoning for their decision.