United States federal judge
In the United States as a federal judge (german federal judge ) usually refers to those judges, which the constitution of the United States appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate pursuant to Article II.
According to Article III, paragraph 1 of the Constitution is the judicial power in the Supreme Court of the United States and other under him and set up by Congress federal courts. Currently there are 13 federal appellate courts (English courts of appeals ), 94 federal district courts (English district courts ) and a Court of International Trade (English Court of International Trade ) was established. Each judge, who at one of the aforementioned courts has been appointed ( including the Supreme Court) is referred to as federal judges.
There are several other federal courts, but not in accordance with Article III of the Constitution have been established, but derive their power of decision as partially dependent on the legislative institutions from Article I of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has ruled that the establishment of such courts is permissible, their decision-making power, however, is partially restricted. Nevertheless, the judges in these courts are called federal judges occasionally. To distinguish them from the judges in the courts above, they are often called " non-Article III judges " (English Non Article III judges ).
Tenure and salary
"Article III judges " are generally appointed for life, so divorced from first to resign from office or death. However, they may be removed from office for serious infringements by Congress through impeachment (English impeachment ). Whether, in addition, the possibility exists to accuse a federal judge for misconduct in federal court and make of this remove from office, is controversial in American jurisprudence.
Article III of the Constitution forbids Congress to cut the salaries of federal judges during their term of office. The salary of a judge at a federal district court are ( as of 2010) $ 174,000 a year, a judge on a federal appeals court $ 184,500 and that of a judge of the Supreme Court $ 213,900. In addition, permits are revenues of up to $ 21,000 for teaching activities.
Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly called for an increase in salary, since in his opinion the underpayment of federal judges leads to a lack of competence on the bench. In fact, deserves a good lawyer in his first year as an associate in a well-known American law firm already about as much as a federal judge, later as a partner in a large law firm significantly more. Then, when the question arises whether one should strive for a change in the magistracy, the view of the so vorbundene reputation the prospect of a salary as in the first few years is over. Therefore Roberts is concerned that many good lawyers, if at all, only for a short time you wish to become a judge, what could degenerate into a step on the career ladder, the judge and could jeopardize the independence of the judiciary.
Retirement
If a judge to retire after he has reached the required age and seniority, he will receive for the rest of his life covers the full amount of his last salary plus any applicable compensation for increased cost of living. The required age for at least 15 years of service as an Article III judge is 65 years. For each year of service less of an age more is required, so for example, a 70 - year-old after 10 years of service will also receive the full payment. Thus, since the required sum of years of life and years of service is always 80, the regulation also is called the " Rule of 80 ".
Number of judges
The exact number of federal judges is constantly changing, as new vacancies are usually refilled only after some time and also occasionally new jobs will be created ( or, less jobs were eliminated ), to meet the changing workload justice in a judicial district.
2009, there were 874 federal judgeships: nine on the Supreme Court, 179 the appellate courts, 677 at the district courts and nine at the Court of International Trade. While the number of judges of the Supreme Court was always the same, the number of appeal judges alone has doubled since 1950, which tripled the District Judge.
Non-Article III judges
Federal courts that were established by Parliament under Article I of the Constitution and whose judges are therefore no federal judge in the narrow sense, including the bankruptcy courts are (English United States bankruptcy courts ), the Tax Court (English United States Tax Court ) and the Court for claims against the state (English United States Court of Federal Claims ). The judges of these courts are, unlike Article III judges, not appointed for life, but for a fixed term of office.