MONEY MONEY MONEY

Can I Please Have A Raise?

If you missed it, Supreme Court Justices Alito and Breyer appeared before John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary not too long ago giving a brilliant argument as to why Federal Judges should be paid more. It’s not about the fact that they make five times less than partners in major law firms in DC annually, it’s about the rule of law. I actually agree-somewhat. Breyer argued that you don’t want what the Soviet’s call “telephone justice” where the “party boss” calls to put the fix in to the vulnerable underpaid public justice servant for sale to the highest bidder. [Anti-graft Bar rules aren’t enough?] You also don’t want only people who have saved a couple million enough for lush retirements so that their paltry federal salaries don’t bother them while they neutrally dispense justice. It would be nice to have diversity on the Court-people who worked in the real world in private sector practices, corporations even. Alito argued that he knew a few Federal Judges in New Jersey who were thinking of leaving the bench because they couldn’t comfortably afford to put their multiple kids through college. The ego-power trade off looks less appealing when your kid needs a new wireless laptop to go with his crack-berry.
I wholly agree that Federal Judges should be paid more. They are generally great folk and they likely would spend it on mentoring young lawyers and supporting programs befitting their station. In fact I think that all Congressional staff salaries also have not kept pace with inflation. A temp. attorney doing doubletime overtime can almost make annually the salary of a federal judge and can make lots more than a staff attorney in the Senate. That is a bit nuts.
I vote for you-Alito- you should get a raise with the rest of them.
I only wish you had the same compassion. You know what I am talking about- that last ruling wherein Goodyear Tire got to pay the Ledbetter woman incrementally less than her male counterpart because she was female for years because she didn’t catch it in time. The lower court awarded her a nice 3 Million to even the playing field and send a much needed message- don’t do that- don’t cheat the woman because you think that the guy has more expenses or kids or financial responsibilities. You have no idea what she supports- whether she has an orphaned niece, or supports a husband, or single-handedly finances that pregnancy crisis center, or pays for her single daughter’s health-care, has twelve god-children or gives generously to the cardinal’s annual appeal. You don’t know what her mortgage is, what her car payment is, what her medical needs are. You just assumed it was cosmically OK to pay her monthly about a half grand less because no one told her how bad she was being jipped until it was too late. Instead of throwing a dollar in the plate should she now neatly tuck 59 cents into an envelope and drop it in the basket?
For every one lawsuit that ever makes it to the appellate level you know there are a hundred such untold stories in the naked city. This one made it on merit all the way to the Supreme Court and what did the Supreme Court do- na na na na na na- sorry honey- too little whining too late- shoulda caught it earlier. And for the rest of you plaintiffs lawyers living on air and church dinners to bring these suits for already financially diminished people- na na na na na na.


Are they serious? Really fellas. This is where it becomes obvious that too many Supreme Court justices are unfamiliar with the routine skank middle management with chauvinist agendas who think women who work are bad women, unloved enough to not-not have to work, or lesser humans not deserving of the same respect as men- just because they are working women forced or choosing to compete with working men . Do they think the extra half a thou just meant she now has to go to "Bubbles" hair salon rather than "Christophe's" and limit the nail emporium to once a month? If you spent most your life paid as a Yale law grad attorney working in government for respectable and respectful government people how can you be expected to know really how bad it can be out there? This ruling affects all women on discriminatory pay issues, whether they are widows, orphans, PHD students, divorcees, your mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter.
It is just astounding to me that the Supreme Court of the land would want to make it harder to address this persistent basic injustice- seems in fact totally Oxymoronic.
On this one I thank God there is such a one as the Ginsberg. And everyone in the country needs to back any Hillary legislation to fix this mess--- or Alito should get his pay docked.

It's enough to make a raging feminist out of a nice Catholic girl.