FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—April 18, 2007
Contact: Larry Akey
202-463-5824
U.S. Chamber Urges Congress to Raise Federal Judges' Pay
Uncompetitive Federal Judicial Salaries Drains Bench of Best Legal Minds, Creates Crisis of Competence
Washington, DC-U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform President Lisa A. Rickard released the following statement in conjunction with today's hearing on judicial pay by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property:
"Maintaining a highly-qualified judiciary is critical to the fair and efficient operation of our federal court system. Sadly, salaries for federal judges by historical inflation-adjusted standards have been falling for nearly a generation, while pay for equivalently high-level legal positions in the private sector has steadily risen."
"We applaud Congressional review of this important issue and we call for legislation that brings pay for federal judges back into balance with the rest of our economy. Without it, our courts are left without the best legal minds, and the result is a citizenry that is cheated from justice through bad law."
The mission of the Institute for Legal Reform is to make America's legal system simpler, fairer, and faster for everyone. It seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the national, state, and local levels. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.