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Attorney General Advocates Pay Raise for Federal Judges

  January 18, 2007 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said he thinks federal judges should receive a pay raise. His comments about judges' pay were among those made in a January 17, 2007, speech about the federal judiciary.

According to the speech text, Gonzales said, "I believe that judicial independence also would be strengthened if judges were paid more. I'm not going to argue that federal judges are not earning a livable wage. And I'm not going to argue that the government can or should match dollar-for-dollar the potential private-sector salaries these dedicated men and women could make.

"But there should be some meaningful effort to increase salaries to allow the judiciary to attract and retain the best legal minds – lawyers who could find far more lucrative ways to ply their trade," he said.

Gonzales said that he has talked with "too many potential judicial nominees" who declined federal judgeships because they felt they could not afford to serve. "I hope the Congress will consider enacting a meaningful pay raise for judges, so that future candidates for judicial office will not be faced with that choice, and so that judicial independence will be strengthened," he said.

The attorney general quoted Chief Justice John Roberts' 2006 year-end report, in which the chief justice said, "If judicial appointment ceases to be the capstone of a distinguished career and instead becomes a stepping stone to a lucrative position in private practice, the framers' goal of a truly independent judiciary will be placed in serious jeopardy."  

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