Judicial Pay Disparity Drains Talent from Federal Bench
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Carol J. Williams
Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: 9/27/2009
Disproportionately low pay has driven federal judges into the private sector and away from federal judgeships. According to The Los Angeles Times, low salaries for these judgeships are responsible for "mounting vacancies . . . in the federal judiciary." "[Judicial analysts] attribute what they see as a troubling phenomenon to Congress' failure for nearly two decades to pass a significant pay increase for federal judges or to expand their numbers to handle a soaring caseload." A federal bill last year would have increased federal judges' salaries to $218,000 a year, but it "died amid partisan bickering." In its place, a recent bill proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy seeks to add 63 new federal judgeships to lessen judges' caseloads while "sidestepping the pay-raise issue." This effort also appears fraught, says David Ingram of Legal Times, since Senate Republicans are wary of adding judgeships on a Democratic president's watch.