Scalia: Fed 'judges ain't what they used to be'

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Supreme Court Justices Breyer and Scalia agreed, when talking to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, that the political controversy surrounding the confirmation process weakens the judicial system by discouraging people from interest in judicial office.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, asked the justices if the politicization of the confirmation process has had "a chilling effect" on the desire of "the best and the brightest" attorneys to enter the judiciary.

"I think it's had that effect already at the Court of Appeals level," Scalia said. "My view is, federal judges ain't what they used to be." Justice Breyer added that "there's much truth to that," before Scalia mentioned that the current raft of federal judges "is not as elite as it used to be."

That diminishment of the federal bench would seem to have a significant impact on the caseload of the U.S. Supreme Court, given Scalia's earlier explanation of why the Supreme Court ought to have frequent 5-4 decisions:

"You should be suspicious if we didn't have a lot of 5-4 [rulings]," Scalia said, explaining that the Supreme Court usually only hears cases in which "very good" judges on the lower courts appointed "the same way we are" have disagreed on a case.