Rehnquist: Pay Scales Unbalanced Chief Justice Asks Congress To Give Federal Judges A Raise

Declaring the morale and quality of the federal judiciary are at stake, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is calling on Congress to give judges a cost-of-living raise.

Federal judges, who now make $133,600 a year, “need and have earned” more money, especially since many could be making heftier salaries as top-tier private lawyers, Rehnquist said in his year-end message on the federal courts.

“Clearly, this disparity between the salaries of the judicial and legal professions cannot continue indefinitely without compromising the morale of the federal judiciary and eventually its quality,” said the nation’s highest-ranking judge.

Rehnquist also criticized Congress for failing to create new judgeships in 1996 to handle a rising federal court caseload.

But he praised lawmakers for setting new limits on the ability of state inmates - including those on death row - to challenge their convictions in federal court, and for enacting other administrative changes sought by the judiciary.

Rehnquist said there is a “paradox of judicial independence in the United States: we have as independent a judiciary as I know of in any democracy,” yet judges depend on Congress and the president for laws to help improve the justice system.

Federal judges came under criticism during the election, when Republican nominee Bob Dole accused some of President Clinton’s appointees of being soft on crime.

The White House also briefly threatened to seek the resignation of a Clinton-appointed judge who threw out evidence in a cocaine case. The judge later reversed his ruling.

The Constitution seeks to protect federal judges from political influence by giving them life tenure and guaranteeing their salaries won’t be reduced. But their pay can be eroded by inflation.

“Federal judges are underpaid,” said Jerome Shestack, presidentelect of the American Bar Association. “The volume of work and responsibility is enormous and they don’t begin to get the salary that any good lawyer is able to make in private practice.”

Federal district court judges earn $133,600 a year, while appeals court judges get $141,700.

Congressional approval is required to grant a cost-of-living raise, and none has been approved since 1993.

Rehnquist said judges “are not expecting or requesting any major adjustment in their pay” but are seeking protection against inflation.