In the recent past, there has been much written and said on the subject of “judicial independence.” Pundits, practitioners and, in some cases, members of the judiciary themselves have bemoaned the threats posed to the judicial branch and its independence by legislative meddling, voter initiatives and caustic commentary. And in all the back and forth in the debate over judicial independence-what it means, what it should be and whether it is genuinely threatened-very little, if anything has been said about a structural defect in our system that threatens to make the entire concept of judicial independence an absurd farce. The defect in the system is that the judicial branch is dependent on the Legislature to pass and the governor to approve a pay raise for a co-equal branch of government.
We saw that structural defect in the relationship between the supposedly co-equal branches of government played out once again this month when Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed legislation that would have granted judges in the state of Georgia a pathetic and paltry 5 percent pay raise-the first real pay raise the judiciary would have received in 10 years
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