Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has already upset many Republicans by voting to uphold the Affordable Care Act. He might lose a few more conservative friends by complaining that the sequester is responsible for cuts to the court system which pose a risk to public safety:
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts used his year-end report for 2013 to call for more funding for federal courts and lambast sequestration’s effect on the judiciary.
In the New Year’s Eve missive, Roberts referenced the seasonally appropriate “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens to guide a “look at what has made our federal court system work in the past, what we are doing in the present to preserve it in an era of fiscal constraint, and what the future holds if the judiciary does not receive the funding it needs.”
Roberts wrote that while the judiciary recognizes the need for frugality, its operating costs are only 0.2 percent of the federal budget and it has been making austerity moves for years, even before the sequester went into effect. Because courts cannot manage their caseload, however, Roberts said the effects of sequestration hit them harder.
