Chief Justice Roberts says pay is unjust

I hope everyone has a shining '09, except for Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court. He thinks he should earn $280,000 a year, instead of the paltry $217,400 he can earn for the rest of his life, even after he retires.

Millions of hardworking Americans who have to worry about whether or not they'll even have a job six months from now will have a hard time sympathizing with this well-paid prima donna and his lifetime job security as a Supreme Court Justice.

Two years ago, Roberts said that pay for federal judges was so inadequate that it threatened to undermine the judiciary's independence. In his latest report, Roberts writes, "the judiciary's needs cannot be postponed indefinitely without damaging its fabric."

Maybe justice really is blind. If Roberts can't work for the pay that he agreed to when he accepted the job, he should go back into private practice and spare us the drama. Americans deserve Supreme Court Justices who are willing to make some personal sacrifice in serving the public and protecting the fabric of the Constitution, rather than protecting the interest and fabric of their own pockets.