Home Courts Educational Resources Judicial Independence Judicial Independence

The principle of judicial independence is central to a functioning democracy. Essentially, this means that the courts are shielded from politics or any other force that could compromise its ability to make fair rulings. Judicial independence includes two elements: decisional independence and institutional independence.

Some further sources of information on judicial independence include:

• American Judicature Society
• National Center for State Courts
• American Bar Association
• Statement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer on July 15, 2002 (.pdf document)

Despite the general success of efforts to shield the courts, the American Judicature Society (www.ajs.org/cji/cji_whatisji.asp) lists dangers which may threaten judicial independence. Some of these include:

• Underfunding and workload
• Inappropriate threats of impeachment prompted by individual decisions
• Misleading criticism of individual decisions, which is compounded by the prohibition on judicial response
• Poor interbranch relationships between the judiciary and the legislature marked by the lack of communication
• The lack of periodic and automatic judicial salary increases for cost-of-living adjustments; instead, legislatures control judicial salaries
• Elections leading to concerns and potential conflicts of interest regarding campaign contributions
• Retention elections posing the threat of judges being targeted by special interest groups based on legally correct but politically or socially unpopular decisions