Legal

V.I. Bar Asks Supreme Court to End 10-Year Terms and Give Territorial Federal Judges Life-Tenure Protections

The Virgin Islands Bar Association is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to confront a question with direct implications for the territory: whether judges who exercise federal judicial power should be limited to 10-year terms instead of receiving the life-tenure protections given to federal district judges in the states. The argument was raised in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the V.I. Bar in Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, a Guam case scheduled for Supreme Court arguments on October 7. Although the underlying dispute involves Guam and federal environmental law, the Bar says the case presents a broader constitutional problem that also reaches the District Court of the Virgin Islands. Judges of the District Court of the Virgin Islands are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and they preside over federal criminal prosecutions, constitutional disputes and major civil cases involving federal law. Unlike federal district judges in the states, howe...