The Origins and Development of Judicial Tenure 'During Good Behavior' to 1485 Behavior' to 1485

Judicial tenure, the terms by which a judge holds office, has been touted as one of the key pillars of judicial independence from oppressive executive power. Judicial tenure during good behaviour ( quamdiu se bene gesserit ), as opposed to the more precarious judicial tenure during pleasure ( durante bene placito / quamdiu nobis placuerit) , has customarily been viewed as a seventeenth-century legal innovation created to shield English high court judges from arbitrary removal by a meddling, overbearing monarch. Drawing upon this seventeenth-century English tradition, the United States Constitution ratified in 1788 mandated that all United States federal judges would fill their offices during good behaviour, a phrase that has come to mean that a federal judge holds office for life barring commission of a crime serious enough to warrant impeachment and conviction (typically a felony). Judicial tenure during good behaviour for U.S. federal judges remains a unique form of judicial office holding today despite sporadic attempts to change it.