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25 Roger Williams U. L. Rev. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/rwulr25 and id is 1 raw text is: Articles Judicial Independence: Origins and Contemporary Challenges* David J. Barron** I want to thank Chief Judge Smith and Judge McConnell for inviting me to speak to you at this conference. The theme that you have chosen-independence and the courts-is always an attractive one for a judge to talk about. For one thing, there are not many judges who have to think very hard about whether they are for it. For another, there are not that many topics that such judges can talk about publicly, and this is one of them. It is hard to go wrong-e specially if you defend judicial independence, which I plan to do. But, beyond self-interest, judicial independence is an important topic in its own right, and now more than ever. And so, I am pleased to offer some reflections about the origins of this idea in our constitutional system and some of the contemporary challenges to it. The challenges to judicial independence at present are, as you all know, quite real. At certain moments, concerns about judicial independence do become more salient than in others-not only here in our country but also globally. And it is quite evident that this issue has become salient in constitutional democracies the world over. The salience of this issue may be attributed at present to the * Text of speech delivered on October 18, 2019 at the 2019 District Conference of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. ** Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 1

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