Chief Justice John Roberts issued the annual report on the state of the federal judiciary--his first.

* Chief Justice John Roberts issued the annual report on the state of the federal judiciary--his first. It was as notable for what it did not say as for what it said. In his last years on the bench, Chief Justice William Rehnquist took to criticizing, as threats to judicial independence, attempts by Congress to assert its constitutional power to limit the courts' jurisdiction. Chief Justice Roberts thinks judicial independence is threatened, too, but only by low pay and high rents. The absence of any lecture to Congress is a welcome change, and we hope it signals that the Roberts Court will show some tolerance for the constitutional interpretations of other branches of the government.