“Chief Justice Roberts Reflects on Conflicts, Harassment and Judicial Independence; In his year-end report, the chief justice said that the court administrators, not Congress, should address financial conflicts and workplace misconduct in the judicial system”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Robert Barnes of The Washington Post reports that “Roberts says federal judiciary has some issues but doesn’t need congressional intervention.”

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Chief Justice Roberts calls for better enforcement of conflict laws involving judges’ stock ownership.”

Jess Bravin and James V. Grimaldi of The Wall Street Journal report that “Chief Justice John Roberts Pledges to Bolster Judicial Ethics; Year-end report addresses Wall Street Journal findings that federal judges with financial conflicts improperly ruled in hundreds of cases.”

John Fritze of USA Today reports that “Chief Justice Roberts touts independence of federal courts as some lawmakers press for change.”

Jessica Gresko of The Associated Press has a report headlined “Chief justice: Judges must better avoid financial conflicts.”

Jan Wolfe of Reuters reports that “U.S. Chief Justice says judges need ‘rigorous’ training on stock-trading rules.”

Kimberly Robinson of Bloomberg News reports that “Chief Justice Stresses Independence Amid Calls for Court Changes.”

Pete Williams of NBC News reports that “Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts stresses need for judicial independence; His annual New Year’s Eve report on the federal judiciary came at the end of a year that brought repeated calls for changes in the Supreme Court.”

Ariane de Vogue of CNN reports that “Roberts pushes for judiciary’s continued independence in year-end report.”

And Shannon Bream and Bill Mears of Fox News report that “Chief justice calls for judicial independence amid growing political criticism of federal courts; Chief Justice John Roberts said, ‘Collectively, our ethics training programs need to be more rigorous.’”

You can access Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.’s 2021 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary at this link.

“Merrick Garland withdrew the death penalty in 12 cases. Does this signal a trend?” Gabrielle Banks of The Houston Chronicle has this report.

“Joe Biden Can’t Save Roe v. Wade Alone. But He Can Do This.” Law professors David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, and Rachel Rebouché have this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“Newsom can have a historic ‘Sotomayor moment’ by appointing a Latina to the state Supreme Court”: Helen Iris Torres has this essay online at The Los Angeles Times.

“Biden outpaces Trump in first-year judicial confirmations, leaving his own mark on the courts; Senate confirmed 40 of Biden’s nominees to circuit and district courts, most in one year since Reagan”: Brooke Singman of Fox News has this report.

“Why the Supreme Court Needs (Short) Term Limits”: Law professor Rosalind Dixon has this guest essay online at The New York Times.

“Judicial Nominations 2021 — Year in Review”: Harsh Voruganti has this post at his blog, “The Vetting Room.”