Radical democrats have always protested against this exception, which, nevertheless, can be permitted without any infringement of democratic principles.

The peculiar position of the Federal judge is symptomatic of the peculiar importance in the American system of the Federal Constitution.

A senator would be less likely to be an efficient and public-spirited legislator, in case he were not obliged at regular intervals to prove title to his distinction.
A justice of the Supreme Court, on the other hand, can the better perform his special task, provided he has a firm and permanent hold upon his office.

He cannot, to be sure, entirely escape responsibility to public opinion, but his primary duty is to expound the Constitution as he understands it; and it is a duty which demands the utmost personal independence.

The fault with the American system in this respect consists not in the independence of the Federal judiciary, but in the practical immutability of the Constitution.