Roberts closed his report with a quote from President Calvin Coolidge for the country’s 150th anniversary in 1926. “Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics,” Coolidge said, “every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken.” Coolidge’s statement, Roberts emphasized, was “[t]rue then” and remains “true now.”
The Chief Justice's Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary dropped on New Year's Eve at six o'clock per usual. The only other thing dropping this week was a single typo fixed in Alito's dissent in the Illinois case.
2025 was the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the fight for independence. July will be the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Chief Justice Roberts used this for the history portion of the report, starting with a discussion of Thomas Paine and Common Sense.
The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, a date later celebrated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
Suitably, David Souter was born on September 17. He was later especially concerned about the teaching of civics. Souter died last year at the age of 85.