Justice Breyer on Judicial Independence

My colleague Mark Murakami has posted a summary of a recent speech by US Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer on hawaiioceanlaw.com:

So, what is judicial independence?  He said that every judge knows what it means, some lawyers do, and, for the most part, most people in the public had no idea.  So, is there a problem with judicial independence, he asked.

He thought there was.  The signs of a problem: 1) elected judges being forced to raise campaign funds to be re-elected; 2) state initiatives to punish judges for their decisions (citing South Dakota and Colorado); and 3) a disturbing trend in public opinion polls suggesting that more Americans believe judges make decisions, not based on what the law says, but what they personally want to do.

Read his entire post here.