Broke on the Bench

At official sessions of a national conference on appellate justice that ended in San Diego last week, the central theme was the rising courtroom work load. During the coffee breaks and cocktail receptions at the del Coronado Hotel, it was clear that federal judges have a more pressing, personal concern: they are going broke. Since 1969, salaries have been frozen at $40,000 for district court jurists and $42,500 for those on the appeals courts. Last year six federal judges resigned, five of them for financial reasons. That was the largest number in 100 years.

When Congress killed a planned salary boost last March, "I just said the hell with it," recalls former New Jersey Federal Judge Anthony Augelli, who now works for General Motors at twice the pay. New York City's Arnold Bauman, who has now joined a major Wall Street firm, did not want to quit, but says it was "economically impossible for me to stay." Sidney Smith of Atlanta would have turned down a $120,000 partnership offer if even a 25% salary hike had come through. "We're going to get a slew of fresh resignations this year," warns former American Bar Association President Bernard Segal.

Most judges do not really expect their salary to match that of the top-grade private practitioner, but virtually all of them are galled by the knowledge that since 1969 other federal employees have had a 38% increase to cope with a 42% rise in the consumer price index. Says Carl McGowan, a respected judge of the District of Columbia court of appeals since 1963: "I took this job knowing the pay rate, and my wife and I figured that we had enough saved to make it, to complete the education of our children. But I'm not really making $42,500 any more."

Chief Justice Warren Burger, outgoing Attorney General William Saxbe and current A.B. A. President James Fellers have all urged Congress to raise the salaries as well as the number of judges. But recession-laden legislators are likely to turn a deaf ear. It may be that the judges' only recourse is a semi-serious ploy proposed by one of them during last week's meeting. Citing the Constitution's command that a judge's pay "shall not be diminished," he suggested suing, arguing that failure to give cost-of-living increases amounted to such a cut. One problem with the suit, of course, would be finding a federal judge whose interest in the case would not force him to disqualify himself.

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