Congressional leaders today told the Judicial Conference today that increasing judicial salaries is still a "serious and pressing issue" that deserves the attention of Congress even at a time of economic woe for the nation.
The sentiment among legislators at the conference was generally positive about the need for judicial pay increases, though several also said "we have to get our national economic house in order," said Anthony Scirica, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. The judiciary has been trying without success for years to win salary increases. A small cost-of-living increase was approved last year, and a salary hike made some headway in committee, but was not enacted.
Scirica, who chairs the executive committee of the Judicial Conference, briefed reporters on the pay and other issues after the closed-door meeting of the conference. The Judicial Conference, with representatives from all 13 courts of appeals and from district courts and the Court of International Trade, is the policy-making body of the federal judiciary.
Among those addressing the conference were Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees respectively, as well as the ranking Republican members of both committees. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. also spoke, Scirica said.
Both Leahy and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the judges they would "work hard" to speed the pace of confirming judicial nominees, Scirica said. Except for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the current Congress has not held votes to confirm any federal judges.
Also Tuesday the conference took a step toward greater transparency by voting to put information about the workload of individual federal judges for free on the Internet, instead of making it available on the PACER system, which charges a fee. Under the Civil Justice Reform Act, judges have since 1990 been required to report on their caseloads and backlogs twice a year. "It's a way for judges to have a standard and a marker," said Scirica, adding that the reporting gives "gentle encouragement" to judges to stay on track in resolving cases. The workload reports will start going online next year.
The judges' group also approved additional measures to contain costs for the courts, including "court sharing" for magistrate judges that wll reduce the amount of space needed in new courthouse construction.
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