Posted on 01/01/2007 7:26:14 AM PST by indcons
Pay for federal judges is so inadequate that it threatens to undermine the judiciary's independence, Chief Justice John Roberts says in a year-end report critical of Congress.
Issuing an eight-page message devoted exclusively to salaries, Roberts says the 678 full-time U.S. District Court judges, the backbone of the federal judiciary, are paid about half that of deans and senior law professors at top schools.
In the 1950s, 65 percent of U.S. District Court judges came from the practicing bar and 35 percent came from the public sector. Today the situation is reversed, Roberts said, with 60 percent from the public sector and less than 40 percent from private practice.
Federal district court judges are paid $165,200 annually; appeals court judges make $175,100; associate justices of the Supreme Court earn $203,000; the chief justice gets $212,100.
Thirty-eight judges have left the federal bench in the past six years and 17 in the past two years.
The issue of pay, says Roberts, "has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis."
"Inadequate compensation directly threatens the viability of life tenure, and if tenure in office is made uncertain, the strength and independence judges need to uphold the rule of law - even when it is unpopular to do so - will be seriously eroded," Roberts wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
Then he should make that data known in support of his point. Would he decide a legal case without arguments ?
You said, in part: Since when does IQ(intellect in your terms) equate to talent ?
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I don't think I ever said that intellect equates to talent, although there is probably SOME correlation (chances are good that someone who couldn't graduate from high school-- based on ability, not opportunity-- could not ably serve as a judge) between IQ and talent.
You make a good point, but my experience has shown that except for criminal defense and personal injury lawyers, lawyers with more liberal perspectives don't do as well in the more intellectually demanding areas of practice (corporate, tax, banking, real property, intellectual property). You see the libs going into public-interest areas, such environmental and civil liberty areas, which typically do not pay as well. For these people, federal judgeships represent an economic as well as power-wielding opportunity.
As for the 9th circuit, its decisions are reversed so often that I have to question the judges' intellects. If they had more talent, they could better articulate and support their poor decisions.
Roberts earned over $1 million the year before he joined the DC Circuit. This would only have gone up in subsequent years.
Notice I said "avoid the career," not resign. The odds are the vast majority of those who would be dissatisifed with judicial pay check it beforehand, and never take or even consider the job. Those who do take it do so knowing the pay. But are they really the most qualified?
To all of the Judges
I make between 40 and 50k per year. Bust A$$ work hard and put in about 50 hrs per week.
Please look at my right hand between the thumb and the forefinger and try to imagine as the fingers play "my heart bleeds purple peanut butter for you"
Next for the LIFETIME APPOINTMENT. That is a joke
Most well healed folks would serve on SCOTUS for no pay, and almost all on it now are well healed. There is a bonus for power and prestige. Having said that, judges in general are hideously underpaid, and it is a disgrace. When folks with razor sharp legal minds are as plentiful as plumbers, perhaps the issue can be revisited. Right now, they aren't.
Why would I care whether their kids have huge inheritances ? When they're concerned about my kid's inheritance (re Kelo, for one), I'll worry about theirs'.
These guys are a thin black line between us and pure socialism. We still have a 2nd Ammendment and half a mil a year/judge is just fine by me to keep it that way. You guys want to differ, well, rock on. But don't you wonder how many folks who won't take the pay cut and enter public life (like Rush for example) we're missing out on? It's hard enough to find someone who's poop doesn't stink anyway, but you want to compound that with a huge gap in compensation? Not me. I want some more Roberts and Scalias and if that takes a pay hike, so be it.
Exactly. Many people here fail to realize that setting the pay for a job like this far below market levels usually limits interest to those who already have plenty of money. If that's what the people criticizing Roberts want, I hope they're happy, but their class envy suggests that it is not.
I work (and always have) an average of 50 hours a week(the record so far is 91). and make less than you. Sometimes it is about recognizing opportunity.
If the judges don't like the pay,don't take the job!!
I think we need more,not less,turnover in government jobs;let people live ost of their lives subject to the same rules as the general population,not insulated by being a government official.
Well, let's just institute a judicial draft system and pay the losers $56 a month for two years on the bench. If it's good for Uncle Sam in the army it's going to be good for Uncle Sam anywhere skilled help is needed.
this is a problem because conservatives in general don't like working for the govt...if they're successful they could make a TON of money private sector. Libs like govt more in general, so low pay in general would help the libs.
Guess hizzoner better put the better half to work.
I agree
How dare you.
Only the lower classes need deal with such petty concerns.
Move the supreme court to West Virginia and its justices will be fabulously compensated compared to almost everyone else, and might learn a little something about what this country is all about. They certainly won't learn anything like that in law school.
Not me. 'Public service" should always entail some sacrifice for the common good.
Roberts puts a much simpler question: why wouldn't a top-flight practicing lawyer [like he himself used to be] decline a judgeship? In one case it is 1 million plus a year, and in another - 200K + tenure - confirmation circus.
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