Deans of 130 law schools across the country have asked Congress to boost judicial salaries. “As the Chief Justice showed in his recent report, although the average U.S. worker’s wages have risen 17.8% in real terms since 1969, federal judicial pay has actually declined 23.9% after inflation over the same period,” the Deans write.
“This is a grave problem because our judiciary is an essential guardian of our freedom, and we need the most capable people to serve, without regard to their personal financial capabilities. We also want judges to consider the bench to be an insulated position from which they are free to make unpopular but necessary decisions to uphold the Constitution. If judges expect that they will have to leave the bench eventually for financial reasons, the independence of the judiciary is compromised,” the Deans add.
The scholars close with a quotation from Alexander Hamilton: “The independence of the judges once destroyed, the constitution is gone, it is a dead letter: it is a vapor which the breath of faction in a moment may dissipate.”
Quite right, although they could equally well have broadened the appeal. All civil servants should be paid at rates comparable to those available in the private sector. Without good government, our economy can’t function, and good government depends on good people, who need to be paid.
