Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made judicial pay the sole topic of his second annual report, issued on Sunday, declaring that the failure by Congress to raise federal judges’ salaries in recent years has become a “constitutional crisis” that puts the future of the federal courts in jeopardy.

He noted that judges had fallen well behind the American labor force as a whole in keeping up with inflation over the past 25 years, with judges’ pay having declined by 23.9 percent since 1969, adjusted for inflation, while the national average for all wages rose by 17.8 percent.

Given such a “dramatic erosion of judicial compensation,” the chief justice said, it was “clear that the time is ripe for our nation’s judges to receive a substantial salary increase.”

His annual report noted that his predecessor, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, had spoken out on the issue of judicial pay for 20 years. Chief Justice Roberts himself mentioned it, among other topics, a year ago in his first report.