2025 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary

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Chief Justice John Roberts’ 2025 Year-End Report commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by examining its philosophical influence on American constitutional law and judicial independence, while also providing comprehensive workload statistics showing mixed trends across all levels of the federal court system.

Article Summary:

Chief Justice Roberts devotes most of his annual report to marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The report begins by recounting how Thomas Paine, a recent immigrant who had struggled economically in England, arrived in Philadelphia in late 1774 with little more than a letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin. Working as an editor and contributor to The Pennsylvania Magazine, Paine drafted his influential pamphlet Common Sense, which was published anonymously on January 10, 1776. The 47-page work avoided legal jargon and used accessible language to argue that government should serve the people, that colonists should view themselves as Americans rather than British subjects, and that independence would allow the nation to begin the world over again. The pamphlet became a sensation, selling 400,000 copies in a country of fewer than three million people and playing a crucial role in shifting public opinion toward independence.

Roberts explains how the Second Continental Congress then appointed the Committee of Five, including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman, to draft a declaration. The 33-year-old Jefferson took the lead, aiming to produce an expression of the American mind. His initial draft underwent 86 edits before the final 1,337-word version was adopted on July 4, 1776, at Independence Hall. The signers understood they were committing treason in British eyes and pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause. Franklin reportedly warned they must all hang together or would surely hang separately.

The Chief Justice emphasizes that the Declaration’s preamble, particularly its assertion that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, has been called the greatest sentence ever crafted by human hand. However, he acknowledges the profound contradiction that most of the 56 signers, including Franklin, enslaved other humans at some point in their lives. Beyond the preamble, the Declaration lists 27 grievances against King George III and sets out political values based on Enlightenment principles.

Roberts notes that 16 signers served as judicial officers, including five who received federal appointments. Among them were three district judges and two Supreme Court Justices: James Wilson and Samuel Chase. Wilson, one of only six men who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, was among the six original Supreme Court Justices confirmed in 1789. Despite his formidable intellect and influence at the Constitutional Convention, Wilson struggled with debt and spent his final years largely absent from the Court, dying of a stroke in 1798 at age 55. Chase, equally controversial and irascible, was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate in 1805. Chief Justice Rehnquist later explained that Chase’s acquittal assured the independence of federal judges from congressional oversight of their decisions.

The report addresses the Declaration’s legal status, noting that while it appears at the beginning of the United States Code as part of “The Organic Laws of the United States,” it was not codified as part of the general and permanent laws in 1925 but rather listed as ancillary material. Justice Scalia observed that the Declaration consists of aspirations and philosophizing that do not lend themselves well to prescription or enforcement. For a practical charter of government, Americans must turn to the Constitution, though the Declaration clearly informed the Constitution’s creation. Future Justice Wilson stated during ratification debates that the Declaration’s broad basis for independence became the foundation upon which the Constitution was erected.

Roberts emphasizes the connection between the two documents regarding judicial independence. The Declaration charged George III with making judges dependent on his will for their tenure and salaries. The Constitution corrected this by granting life tenure and salary protection to federal judges, an arrangement that has served the country well for 236 years. However, in other respects, particularly regarding liberty and equality, the Constitution fell short of the Declaration’s promises. Most notably, the Constitution avoided directly mentioning slavery while including several compromises that accommodated its perpetuation until the Civil War. Frederick Douglass observed this revealed a palpable contradiction in American practices.

The Chief Justice explains the Declaration’s continuing influence through Abraham Lincoln’s interpretation. Speaking after the Dred Scott decision, Lincoln noted that the assertion of equality was placed in the Declaration for future use. The Framers did not claim all men were equal in all respects but declared the right to equality, so that enforcement might follow as circumstances permitted. After the Civil War’s devastating casualties, Lincoln at Gettysburg dated the country’s dedication to equality not to 1787 but to 1776, urging a new birth of freedom to advance the Founders’ unfinished work.

That work began with the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, which Lincoln lived to see pass Congress though it was ratified after his assassination. British philosopher John Stuart Mill observed that with this amendment, the Declaration’s opening words would no longer reproach the nation founded by its authors. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments followed, guaranteeing due process, equal protection, and voting rights for Black men. Still more work remained. Susan B. Anthony noted on the Declaration’s centennial that while men of every race enjoyed full citizenship rights, women still suffered the degradation of disenfranchisement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. similarly invoked the Declaration, noting that very seldom in world history has a document expressed in such profound language the dignity and worth of human personality.

Roberts discusses how judges also invoked the Declaration’s principles. Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson, stressed that the law regards man as man, taking no account of his color when civil rights are involved. Eventually, the Nineteenth Amendment, the overruling of Plessy in Brown v. Board of Education, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 carried forward the nation’s project to make the Declaration’s ideals real for all Americans in the quest to fulfill the Constitution’s promise of a more perfect union.

The Chief Justice concludes the essay portion by recalling President Calvin Coolidge’s words from a century ago at America’s sesquicentennial: that amid all conflict and partisan politics, every American can turn to the Declaration and Constitution with assurance that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Roberts affirms this remains true today and thanks all judges, court staff, and judicial personnel for their commitment to public service and the rule of law.

The appendix provides comprehensive workload statistics for fiscal year 2025. Supreme Court filings decreased nine percent from 4,223 to 3,856 cases, with 73 cases argued and 64 disposed of in 56 signed opinions. Federal courts of appeals saw filings increase five percent to 41,824 cases, representing a 14 percent decline from pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Civil appeals increased seven percent to 22,812, while criminal appeals decreased seven percent to 9,392. Half of all appellate filings came from pro se litigants, with 88 percent of prisoner petitions filed pro se compared to 40 percent of other appeals.

District courts docketed 303,563 civil cases, a four percent increase, though the massive earplug products liability multidistrict litigation in Florida’s Northern District saw only 15 new filings compared to 23,624 the previous year. Excluding this outlier, civil filings increased 14 percent. Diversity cases fell seven percent to 96,548, while federal question cases increased 12 percent to 157,421. Civil rights filings grew 15 percent to 46,854, and prisoner petitions increased five percent to 42,972. Cases with the United States as defendant rose nine percent to 46,426, with Social Security, civil immigration, and prisoner petitions accounting for 79 percent of such cases.

Criminal defendant filings increased 13 percent to 79,029, the largest number since 2019. Immigration offense filings increased 27 percent to 32,393, while drug offense filings fell six percent to 15,651. The five southwestern border districts received 82 percent of immigration filings, but immigration filings in other states more than doubled, rising 118 percent to 5,681.

Bankruptcy courts docketed 557,376 filings, an 11 percent increase though still 28 percent below 2019 levels. Nonbusiness petitions, comprising 96 percent of filings, increased 11 percent to 533,337. Business petitions rose six percent to 24,039. Chapter 7 petitions increased 15 percent, Chapter 13 petitions rose four percent, and Chapter 11 petitions fell one percent.

Post-conviction supervision cases totaled 119,532 persons on September 30, 2025, a two percent decrease, with 107,565 serving supervised release terms. Pretrial services cases increased 12 percent to 81,466.

Roberts, John G. “2025 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary.” Supreme Court of the United States, 31 December 2025, https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2025year-endreport.pdf

Key Takeaways:

• The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence provides an opportunity to reflect on how its philosophical principles, particularly regarding equality and unalienable rights, have shaped American constitutional development despite falling short of those ideals in practice for most of the nation’s history

• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sold 400,000 copies in a country of fewer than three million people and played a crucial role in shifting colonial opinion toward independence through accessible language that avoided legal jargon

• The Declaration’s charge that King George III made judges dependent on his will became the foundation for the Constitution’s grant of life tenure and salary protection to federal judges, an arrangement that has preserved judicial independence for 236 years

• Abraham Lincoln’s interpretation that the Framers declared the right to equality so that enforcement might follow as circumstances permitted has guided successive generations in advancing civil rights through constitutional amendments, Supreme Court decisions, and federal legislation

• Federal court workload statistics for fiscal year 2025 show mixed trends, with Supreme Court filings down nine percent, appeals court filings up five percent, district court civil cases up four percent, criminal cases up 13 percent, and bankruptcy filings up 11 percent though still well below pre-pandemic levels

Important Quotations:

• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

• “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” — Benjamin Franklin’s reported warning to fellow signers of the Declaration

• “Common Sense, like a ray of revelation, has come in seasonably to clear our doubts, and to fix our choice.” — Boston writer in April 1776

• “They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.” — Abraham Lincoln explaining the Declaration’s assertion of equality

• “Very seldom, if ever, in the history of the world, has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Declaration of Independence

• “The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.” — Justice John Marshall Harlan dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson

• “Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, 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.” — President Calvin Coolidge in 1926