Media Contact: Ira Pilchen
Phone: 312-988-5743
Email: ira.pilchen@americanbar.org
Congress’ Denial of Judicial Cost-of-Living Salary Increases Violates Constitution, ABA Argues
CHICAGO, July 10, 2012 – Congress’ withholding of periodic salary adjustments for Article III judges as called for in the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 violates the constitutional guarantee of undiminished compensation for those judges, the American Bar Association argues in an amicus brief in Beer et al. v. United States. The case is a class action brought by current and former federal judges that is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The brief cites various ABA reports and other studies that document how declining judicial pay is undermining the compensation clause’s purpose, which is to preserve the judiciary’s institutional independence and integrity. The brief notes that from 1969 to 2012, the inflation-adjusted salary of federal district judges has declined approximately 31 percent, while that of the average American worker has risen 19.5 percent.
“The ABA has concluded that Congress’s repeated blocking of the judicial cost-of-living adjustments (“COLAs”) that were established as non-discretionary by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 has resulted in erosion of judicial pay that, due to inflation, is now so low that it seriously threatens the independence that the Compensation Clause was intended to ensure, and risks becoming insufficient to attract and retain well-qualified jurists from diverse economic and societal backgrounds,” the brief states.
The brief is available online here.
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the world’s largest voluntary professional membership organization. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
Please click here for a biography and photo of Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, president of the American Bar Association.
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11:36 AM July 13, 2012
Some time ago a former editor of Fortune magazine said,”Laws are made by lawyers… for lawyers….with no regard for anyone else”. I believe that is true as demonstrated when they look very hard for ways to avoid ETHICS rules and then only apply a slap on the wrist for major breaking of ETHICS rules. ETHICS apply to ALL , even if there is nothing on paper because it is considered PROPER to treat others the way you want to be treated.
The idea of being “immune” for whatever you say in the well of Congress may allow you to say hurtful things free from a lawsuit but you said it and it is on the record. Ethics rules may not be broken but when you seek “protection” from law suits it is because you know you are not ETHICAL. It is UNETHICAL to make rules that are for your own group and leave out others only because you have the “power” to do so. UNETHICAL is still UNETHICAL wherever you say or do it. To say hurtful things in the protection of the “well” means you are also “chicken” to say it elsewhere because you know the difference.
I have PROOF (it was recently published on the front page of the Business section of the New York Times) that in a case recently decided by the Supreme Court of the USA…. a lawyer pleaded his case by omitting the major part of the TRUTH and TWISTING the TRUTH. Does it mean that a lawyer should be expected to take an oath that his argument is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…. or is that assumed to be the case without any mention of the word TRUTH because he is a lawyer, Imagine,TRUTH…. just because he is a lawyer it is assumed he AWAYS tells the truth. I don’t believe that.. DO YOU?… REALLY?
6:18 PM July 13, 2012
I would like for the ABA to name the current sitting federal judges who accepted the appointment as a federal judge but are not qualified for the position. Frankly, with the lifetime appointment and pay being a Federal judge is a great job that many qualified lawyers and state judges would love to have.