Judicial Salaries: An Urgent Need Unmet

The federal judge for whom I clerked, The Honorable D. Brock Hornby, has written this article about federal judical salaries.

Comments

[Louise-Annette Marcotty]

I find it extremely difficult to believe that the quality of the federal judiciary is suffering because of low levels of compensation. I know many, many extremely bright and competent lawyers - certainly as bright and competent as any of the federal judges I've witnessed in action - who would make excellent choices for the bench and who would be more than happy with the salary paid to any federal judge.

It does NOT take a large salary to attract good people to the bench; I'd be delighted to see more people appointed to the bench who are less interested in the size of the salary and less loyal to wealthy in any event. We might end up with judges who don't strongly resemble Justice Rehnquist and that might actually be a good thing.