Judges, as a group, share many, many things in common with the rest of the human race, as a group. But I want to mention two things that tend to set the judges apart. Two things that explain why the federal judiciary is holding it together, while, for example, the Skadden Arps Management Committee acts like a bunch of wusses.
First of all, think for a moment about what judges actually do every day. Well, a lot of what they do is ensure that criminals get their just deserts. Many criminals are violent. Many criminals, just like Mango Mussolini, threaten retribution. Threats to federal judges have reached an alarming level.
If you are the kind of person who backs down whenever an asshole leaves a threatening voicemail, then, most likely, you are not a federal judge.
Secondly, if you are a federal judge, at any level, then the chances are very good that you could make a lot more money doing something else. They want to live comfortably, but, unlike the Skadden Arps Management Committee, their nights are not occupied with dreams of avarice.
Federal district judges make about $240 thousand a year; appellate judges, about $262 thousand; and associate justices of the Supreme Court, about $304 thousand.Â
If you are a federal district judge, your compensation is the same as a second-year lawyer at one of the 100 top law firms.
If you are a judge on one of the federal courts of appeals, then you are making a small fraction of the compensation of a partner at one of the top 100 law firms.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court brings in a whopping $317 thousand. Back in the day, Chief Justice Roberts was a top partner of Hogan & Hartson, now Hogan Lovells, where the current profit per partner is more than $3 million a year.Â
Hold that thought, while you remember George Conway’s offhand remark that the Paul, Weiss Management Committee chose to knuckle under to Trump because they were afraid their annual compensation would drop from $25 million to a mere $15 million.
That’s why, facing off against the very richest of our top law firms, Trump could huff and he could puff and he could blow their house down. They were, metaphorically, the kind of little pig who builds his house out of straw or wood.
Federal judges, as a group, are not that kind of little pig. They have physical courage. A lot of them have moral courage. And, for the most part, they can’t be bought.
Nor, may I add, are they stupid.
Trump gaslights.
But people try to gaslight every federal judge each and every day. Several times a day. They are used to it. It doesn’t work.Â
Facing MAGA 