The Nation - News from Jan. 2, 1989

Federal judges seeking more money got support from the top as Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist strongly endorsed a presidential commission’s recommendation of pay raises for judges and about 2,000 other top officials. Federal trial judges would receive a 51% raise to $135,000 a year. Federal appeals court judges would jump from $95,000 to $140,000, 47%; Supreme Court associate justices from $110,000 to $165,000, 50%, and the chief justice from $115,000 to $175,000, a 52% increase. “Over the past two decades, the purchasing power of federal judicial salaries has been seriously eroded by inflation,” Rehnquist said. The recommendations are pending before President Reagan, who can accept or modify the figures before sending his fiscal 1990 budget to Congress on Jan. 9. Under the law, whatever pay increases the President endorses will take effect 30 days later unless the House and the Senate vote to set them aside before the deadline.