Chief Justice John Roberts spoke Monday night to the Historical Society’s annual dinner, and he gave a toast with the exact seven words a chief justice has delivered since the beginning of the society's dinners. This time, however, it left some attendees shocked.
As the Washington Post explained Tuesday, the toast goes: “To the president of the United States."
For those who've been to the event for years, the toast wasn't strange.
However, the comments were "somewhat jarring to the law firm summer associates, young lawyers and others in attendance for the first time. They exchanged quizzical looks after Roberts spoke, asking each other if the chief justice had really said what they heard," said the Post.
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It comes at a time when Roberts has said publicly that there must be judicial independence amid battles with the executive branch.
"In March, the chief justice issued a stern statement rejecting Trump’s calls for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against the administration," the report recalled.
Raising a glass to President Donald Trump left some with questions.
Historical Society President Carter G. Phillips said that the toast was about "tradition."
“It’s not a political statement. It’s just respect for the office,” said Phillips, who was a clerk to the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. “It would have been stranger not to do that; that would have been political.”
A new trustee with the society, Nichole Francis Reynolds, is the one who revealed the startled reactions from first-time attendees.
The tradition “underscores the profound respect accorded to the nation’s highest office,” she said in an email, according to the Post. “The Society’s mission is to educate the public about the Supreme Court’s rich history, including such time-honored customs.”
"These traditions remind us of the reverence for our constitutional framework and important relationship among our three co-equal branches of government,” she added.
The event's large donors include national and international law firms. Trump has targeted some of those firms he has taken issue with over the past several months.
Unlike last year, this year, none of the justices showed up to the dinner except Roberts'. Last year was also the year that liberal documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor caught Roberts along with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife on tape answering questions about ethics and alleging "shame" for those who fly pride flags around the couple's lake house.
This time around, the email confirming attendance at the dinner had a bolded warning saying guests could not use recording devices, cameras or cellphones. Using such a device "will result in forfeiture" of the group's membership.
