The Ethical Danger of 18-Year SCOTUS Terms

The current salary for a justice is $298,500 (the chief justice makes an extra $11,000 a year for his additional duties). That compares with $257,900 for federal appellate court judges and $243,300 for federal district court judges. Sounds good right? But average profits per equity partner at the top 19 law firms in New York range from $2.4 million a year to over $8 million. The head of a Supreme Court practice, as someone like John Roberts would be, will typically make a good deal more than the average equity partner at his firm.

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Now, consider what kind of money Roberts could make as a former Chief Justice. ...

But if the justices go in knowing they can serve 18 years and may well be leaving the bench before they are ready for retirement, the whole incentive structure changes. 

Ed Morrissey

Indeed it does. And it's not as if those pressures don't already exist. I've written a few times about a dinner I had with Justice Clarence Thomas, where I asked him why justices "grow in office" to the middle or left. Without naming names, Thomas explained that DC and Academia exerts a great deal of social pressure on justices to do so, and rewards it with invitations to the best dinners, law-school graduation speeches, and other perqs. 

Now add in these financial benefits, and imagine what that will do to difficult legal decisions. 

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