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Underpaid Federal Judges Want Pay Raise
Real Life imitates the Onion, Part 345A job for life, generous bennies, the pick of tee times, and compliments from every lawyer in town can't make up for the reality of "low" pay on the federal bench. Making between $149,132 and $208,100 (on par with the vice president and House speaker) just doesn't cut it anymore for the black-robed class. So much for equality between the three branches of our government.... Listen to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. "We are patronized when we meet judges from England, the European Union, or Malaysia, whose salaries double that of ours," he tells a House subcommittee. "They say, 'We're so sorry about your salaries.' You shouldn't put us in that position." How dare we peasants keep him in such poverty!! Of course, I'm sure they are comparing their gross salaries, not their net salaries.... His dramatic complaints reveal that judicial pay has gone from a whine to a serious issue that Chief Justice John Roberts plans to raise with Congress. "The failure of the Congress to address the problem of judicial salary is assuming the proportion of a historic wrong," says Kennedy. Yeah, right up there with separate-but-equal and Kelo. Court reps say law school students shun the bench, judicial morale is low, and many are fleeing to wealthy firms. Kennedy says his law clerks win signing bonuses equal to his $199,200 salary when they leave, and the federal bench's top class-action judge quit because he didn't get a cost-of-living adjustment. The resulting higher workload even has older judges off the links and in the court full time. Horrors! What inhumanity!! "They don't have to do that," says Kennedy. "They don't have to work at all." The rest of us have to wait until we retire to not work at all, your Highness. Sorry for the confusion as to appropriate judicial duties..... Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-04-10 |
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