Others Threaten to Leave Bench for Higher Salaries : No Pay Raise, Less Work, Judge Avows

When Congress rejected a 50% pay raise for top federal office-holders earlier this week, the action was expected to prompt mass resignations of judges seeking higher salaries in the private sector. But no one anticipated that some judges might simply decide to work less, as Carl B. Rubin has done.

Rubin, 68, who for the last 17 years has been a federal judge in Cincinnati, has let it be known that he will stage a work slowdown in protest of the action blocking a pay raise that would have boosted the annual salary for judges from $89,500 to $135,000.

“We’ve been dealt with unfairly,” Rubin, who is chief judge in his district, said in a telephone interview. “A salary of $89,500 for a lifetime of legal experience is low pay indeed. There isn’t a lawyer who appears before my court who doesn’t make more than I do.”

His protest was seen by many as the first concrete manifestation of the outrage many of the nation’s more than 1,000 federal judges have expressed since they were denied the raise that was promised to them by former President Ronald Reagan.

“It has everybody despondent,” Rubin said. “It was devastating.”

President Bush expressed sympathy for the plight of federal judges Friday. “Judicial salaries should go up,” he told reporters traveling with him as he returned to the United States from a brief trip to Canada. And he indicated for the first time publicly that he will submit new pay legislation covering at least federal judges and some senior executive branch officials.

“We’ve got to do something,” Bush said, but he made clear that he did not intend to do anything right away. “I’m not sure the timing is right,” Bush said. “I think we need to let the dust settle.”

According to a survey of federal judges conducted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, 215 of the 638 who returned a questionnaire indicated they are unlikely to remain on the bench without a substantial pay increase.

In Miami, Chief Judge James Lawrence King has said he knows of one judge who has decided to resign and two others who are thinking of it as a result of the action of Congress. But King has not identified these judges, and he could not be reached for comment.

Rubin, who will be 69 next week, said he would be forced to quit the bench if he were younger with school-age children to support. “If I was facing educating my children, I couldn’t keep this job,” he said.

He predicted that congressional opposition to a pay increase would alter the types of people who agree to serve on the bench. “You will either find a person of great wealth or people who cannot make it in private practice,” he said.

Predicts Shorter Tenure

In addition, according to Rubin, it will shorten the tenure of many federal judges. He predicted that many judicial appointees, most of whom now serve on the bench until retirement, will agree to serve only a few years in the future--just long enough so their judicial experience will help them command higher salaries in the private sector.

In fact, 28% of the 557 judges who responded to a survey conducted by the American Bar Assn. indicated that they have decided to reduce their stay on the court as a result of the pay scale. It also found that those between 53 and 57 are the most likely to leave.

Rubin said he is receiving two types of telephone calls in response to his announced work slowdown--calls from other judges praising him and calls from citizens condemning him. He said he tells them all that his conscience demands that he do something to protest.

“I would simply not be comfortable turning the other cheek,” he said.

Rubin, who claims to have been one of the more productive federal judges in the past, said he intends to adhere to the average productivity record for the court. At present, he said, no more than 1% of his cases are three years old--compared to the average of 8%.

“I will simply become an average judge,” he said. “If I’m being paid in that fashion, I’ll work in that fashion.”

The salary for federal judges was $40,000 when Rubin was appointed to the bench, he said, and he would be satisfied with the current equivalent of that salary, adjusted for inflation, which he estimated is now $120,000.

Wanted to Help Grandchildren

Like most judges, Rubin already had decided how he was going to spend his promised 50% raise when it was suddenly taken away from him by Congress. He said that he wanted to establish a trust fund for the education of his seven grandchildren, “and now I can’t do that.”