WASHINGTON \u2013 Chief Justice John Roberts made a case Friday for maintaining the <\/a>independence of the federal judiciary after a year in which the other branches of the government eyed changes big and small to the way the courts do their business<\/a>.<\/p>\n Roberts used an annual year-end report on the federal judiciary to draw attention to one of his predecessors: William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States who went on to serve as chief justice \u2013 the only person in history to hold both jobs.<\/p>\n “He understood that criticism of the courts is inevitable, and he lived through an era when federal courts faced strident calls for reform, some warranted and some not,” Roberts wrote of Taft in his nine-page report<\/a>. “As chief justice, Taft took vital steps to ensure that the judicial branch itself could take the lead in fulfilling that duty.”<\/p>\n Roberts’ message wasn’t hard to glean: The judiciary can take care of itself.<\/p>\n