Peanuts feed monkey.Banana feed elephant.
If U dunt pay US judges well,they raise funds themelves!!
..Most states allow judicial candidates to raise campaign funds.
Huge sums are often involved, leading to inevitable suspicions
that, once on the bench, judges will pass judgments that favour
their benefactors.
In 2004 the two candidates in one Illinois district (with a
population of just 1.3m) raised a staggering $9.4m between them.
Some of the states with the highest levels of campaign
spendingTexas, Louisiana and Alabamaare also those whose judges
are most criticised...
Judges behaving badly,Jun 28th 2007,From The
Economist print edition
Low pay and partisan elections are threatening judicial
integrity--http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9413718
A $54m lawsuit over a pair of pinstriped trousers that went
missing from a Washington, DC, cleaners was thrown out by a judge
this week. It had attracted worldwide ridicule. The fact that the
case was brought, not by a random loony, but by a former judge has
added to the sense that something is wrong not just with America's
litigation laws, but with the kind of men and women Americans
choose to sit in judgment over them.
A whole series of judicial misdemeanours, ranging from the
titillating to the outrageous, has emerged over the past year. Take
the Florida state judge, John Sloop, who was ousted after
complaints about his rude and abusive behaviour. This included an
order to strip-search and jail 11 defendants for arriving late in
traffic court after being misdirected. Or the Californian judge,
José Velasquez, sacked in April for a plethora of misconduct,
including extending the sentences of defendants who dared question
his rulings.
Then there was the Albany city judge, William Carter, in New York,
censored for his utterly inexcusable conduct after jumping down
from the bench during a trial, shedding his robes and apparently
challenging a defendant to a fist-fight. Another time, he suggested
that the police thump the shit out of an allegedly disrespectful
defendant. Mr Carter wasn't carrying a gun; many judges now do. In
Florida, Charles Greene, chief criminal judge in Broward County,
had to step down after describing a trial for attempted murder
involving minority defendants and witnesses as NHI (No Humans
Involved). Then there are the sexual peccadilloes. In Colorado, a
(male) judge resigned after admitting having sex with a (female)
prosecutor in his chambers. In California, a former judge was
jailed for 27 months for downloading child pornography. And in
Oklahoma Donald Thompson, a judge for more than 20 years, was
jailed for four years for indecent exposure and using a penis
pump to masturbate during trials.
More serious are the cases of corruption. On June 5th Gerald
Garson, a former judge in Brooklyn, New York, was jailed for taking
bribes to rig divorce cases. Another judge was convicted of
accepting money to refer clients to a particular lawyer. Rumours of
buying and selling of judgeships in the district abound. At one
time, one in ten Brooklyn judges were said to be under
investigation for sleaze.
To distrust the judiciary, said Honoré de Balzac, marks the
beginning of the end of society. In Britain, judges are one of the
most respected groups. But in America they tend to be held in low
esteem, particularly at state level. For this many people blame low
pay and the fact that judges are elected. In 39 states, some or all
judges are elected for fixed terms. Federal judges, usually held in
much higher esteem, are appointed on merit for lifeas in
Britain.
Most states allow judicial candidates to raise campaign funds. Huge
sums are often involved, leading to inevitable suspicions that,
once on the bench, judges will pass judgments that favour their
benefactors. In 2004 the two candidates in one Illinois district
(with a population of just 1.3m) raised a staggering $9.4m between
them. Some of the states with the highest levels of campaign
spendingTexas, Louisiana and Alabamaare also those whose judges
are most criticised.
In the past, judicial candidates were banned from discussing
controversial legal or political issues on the campaign trail. But
in 2002 the Supreme Court ruled such bans to be unconstitutional,
leading candidates to advertise freely their views on abortion and
suchlike. Personal attacks have also become more common. Indeed,
Sandra Day O'Connor, a former Supreme Court justice, fears that
judicial elections have turned into political prize-fights, where
partisans and special interests seek to install judges who will
answer to them instead of the law and the constitution.
The meagre salaries of judges, whether at state or federal level,
do not help raise standards either. Federal judges have not had a
real pay rise for 17 years; a district court judge earns $165,000 a
year, about the same as a first-year associate in a top law firm.
John Roberts, chief justice of the Supreme Court, earns just
$212,000half the salary of England's top judge and one-fifth of
the average income of a partner in the majority of America's 100
top-grossing law firms. Around 40 judges have left the federal
bench over the past five years.
In his annual report to Congress in January, Mr Roberts said that
the issue of judges' pay had reached the level of a constitutional
crisis. It was threatening the judiciary's strength and
independence. In February, Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised legislation to fix it
within the current session. The judges are still waiting.
Meanwhile, state judges in New York are preparing to sue the state
for their first pay rise since 1999. The battle is joined.