Chief Justice John Roberts warned the partisan battle over nominees to the Supreme Court to replace the late Antonin Scalia poses a "real danger" for the integrity of the high court.
At a question-and-answer session at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Roberts was asked about the confirmation process that saw Senate Republicans refuse to consider President Barack Obama's choice of Judge Merrick Garland – and Democrats' attempt to block President Donald Trump's choice of newly confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch, The Washington Post reported.
"I want to point out one thing — that throughout this whole process, the Supreme Court has been quietly going about its business of deciding the cases before it, according to the Constitution, in a completely nonpartisan way," Robert said, per the Post.
"We've done it for the past 14 months with one vacancy, and we'll do it going in the future now that we have a full complement."
"It is a real danger that the partisan hostility that people see in the political branches will affect the nonpartisan activity of the judicial branch," he added, per the Post.
"It is very difficult I think for a member of the public to look at what goes on in confirmation hearings these days, which is a very sharp conflict in political terms between Democrats and Republicans, and not think that the person who comes out of that process must similarly share that partisan view of public issues and public life."
Roberts says judges shed political leanings when they join the bench.
"The new justice is not a Republican, not a Democrat, he is a member of the Supreme Court," Roberts said, per the Post. "But it is hard for people to understand that when they see the process that leads up to it."
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