One of the basic institutions of our democracy is an independent judiciary — one that is free from external pressure and political threats that arise from the other co-branches of government. Keeping distance between branches creates and instills trust in the judiciary by assuring each individual access to a fair and uninfluenced judicial system. In the past two weeks we have seen attacks on the judiciary from both the executive branch and the legislative branch of our government. In late February President Trump called on Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor to recuse themselves from anything ‘Trump-related.’ This aberrant request from the president came as the Supreme Court was to…