Gavel Grab

The newspaper in Paris is calling for a pay raise for the U.S. judiciary, decrying a “brain drain” as too many of the top judges quit for more lucrative private practice.

Perhaps it’s telling that this editorial was published in the Paris, Tennessee Post-Intelligencer,  that this Paris had a population of 9,763 in the 2000 Census, that it boasts a replica of the Eiffel Tower and is home for the “World’s Biggest Fish Fry.” Concern over judicial salaries clearly has reached some parts of small-town America.

The editorial notes both the current pay of federal district judges–about $169,400 a year–and a proposal that died last year to raise it to $218,000. Meanwhile, what a federal judge’s salary can buy has declined 25 percent over 40 years. The author adds:

“The pay makes it harder to find new judges…Somehow, Congress has found ways to raise its own pay over the last 20 years. It should do the same for the judiciary.”

For information about federal judicial salaries, see the Justice at Stake resource page on the topic.