Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want.
From Stephen Breyer
And the problem is once you get into this campaign business and begin to have a lot of money, then the person on the bench begins to think - what's going to happen if I decide the case this way or that way?
It doesn't help to fight crime to put people in prison who are innocent.
At least there's a political input, but when you put on the robe, at that point the politics is over.
Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment.
But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent.
Independence means you decide according to the law and the facts.
It's important to every American that the law protect his or her basic liberty.
Every citizen has to figure out what kind of government he or she wants.
You can have many different selection systems, but the bottom line has to be a system that, once the judge takes office that judge will feel that he or she is to decide the case without reference to the popular thing or the popular will of the moment.
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