Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday he doesn’t think about retiring, but he once asked two longtime friends to intervene if his health is ever in decline.

“I've sat down with them and said, I want at the appropriate time — because you don't always notice that you're slipping — 'I want the two of you to tell me if it's time to go,'” Roberts told a crowd of judges and lawyers gathered in Buffalo, N.Y.

“It was a long pause, and at once, the two of them said, 'It's time to go.' So I said, 'Alright, never mind,'” he continued.

Roberts, 70, made clear he has no plans to step down any time soon, joking, “I'm going out feet first” when the question came up.

“I say that now. I mean, I'm sure if your health declines, and if you recognize that you're a burden to the court rather than part of an assist to everybody, then, it'll be........

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