Roberts the lawyer questioned lifetime appointments to high court

[Kadie]

Posted on Thu, Aug. 04, 2005


Roberts the lawyer questioned lifetime appointments to high court

MICHAEL R. BLOOD

Associated Press


SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Nominated to become a Supreme Court justice at age 50, John Roberts could influence federal law for decades. But while a young government lawyer he was uneasy, if not hostile, to the idea of lifetime judicial appointments.

As a Reagan White House attorney, Roberts argued that limiting terms of federal judges would ensure a fresh supply of talent while guarding against "ivory tower" elitism. Long-entrenched judges, he reasoned, can fall out of step with the society they serve.

The Constitution "adopted life tenure at a time when people simply did not live as long as they do now," Roberts wrote in an Oct. 3, 1983 memo to White House counsel Fred Fielding that is now housed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

"A judge insulated from the normal currents of life for twenty-five or thirty years was a rarity then, but is becoming commonplace today," Roberts wrote. "Setting a term of, say, fifteen years would ensure that federal judges would not lose all touch with reality through decades of ivory tower existence."


more...
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/12305168.htm