Transcript
SARAH BINDER: I thought I would open up our discussion today by offering a couple of observations about this tension or balance between accountability on the one hand and independence of the judiciary on the other.
I should start off by noting these aren't easy terms to define, and chances are we'll be using them differently over the course of the morning. At times we refer to the independence of particular judges or accountability of particular judges. Other times we're referring to the courts as an institution.
But I think it's important, regardless of how we're using the terms "independence" or "accountability," to recognize that it isn't an either/or proposition. We have neither had historically nor today an entirely independent court system, but neither have we have an entirely accountable court as well.
Many scholars like to think of the tension or the balance between these two values. I think sometimes it's more fruitful to think about a zone of independence within which judges do their work. It's a zone that's been constructed first by the Constitution in terms of lifetime tenure for judges as well as salary protections, but it's a zone that's also been constructed politically by Congress and the President over the course of U.S. history.
Read the full transcript (PDF—151kb)
View Full Transcript »