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33 Third Branch 1 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/thirdbran33 and id is 1 raw text is: THE THIRD BRANCH Newsletter of th of Ti: lt VOL.33 r Number 1 J,,,,,,.;. 2001 Special Issue 2000 YEAR-END REPORT ON THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY The 2000 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary is my 15th report as Chief Justice. Despite the seesaw aftermath of the Presidential elec- tion, we are once again witnessing an orderly transition of power from one Presidential administration to another. This Presidential election, however, tested our Constitutional system in ways it has never been tested before. The Florida State courts, the lower federal courts and Chief Justice William H. Reliquist the Supreme Court of the United States became involved in a way that one hopes will seldom, if ever, be necessary in the future. I am pleased to report that a federal courts improvement bill was enacted for the first time in four years. The Act includes nearly 30 provisions covering a wide range of issues of importance to federal court operations. Thanks are due to Congress for creating ten new district judgeships and for confirm- ing 39 judges during the last year, including three in Arizona, one of the Southwestern states where judges are so urgently needed. I hope that the 107th Congress will take action on the Judicial Conference's request to establish ten additional court of appeals judgeships, 44 additional district court judgeships and 24 new bankruptcy judgeships. Although Congress responded to many of the Judiciary's legislative priorities during this year, I will focus in this report on what I consider to be the most pressing issue facing the Judiciary: the need to increase judicial salaries. I will also discuss proposed legislation that would effectively bar judges from attending privately sponsored seminars. One key to the independence of the federal Judiciary is that Article Ill of the Constitution of the United States guarantees federal judges tenure during good behavior and prohibits reducing their compensa- tion while in office. Yet the federal courts of course depend on Congress for funding, including any increase in judicial compensation. At the Constitutional Convention, the framers saw the necessity of allowing periodic increases in judicial salaries. Although the original draft of the compensation clause of Article III contained a prohibition on either decreasing or increasing the salary of a sitting judge, the delegates to the Conven- tion recognized that freezing judges' salaries would be unworkable and would nullify the protections of life tenure. The delegates agreed that Congress ought to be able to increase salaries as circumstances might require... .I They noted three independent factors that could See Report on page 2

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