The only Americans who hold important official positions for life are the judges of the Federal courts.  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.  If the instrument which the Supreme Court expounds could be altered whenever a sufficiently large body of public opinion has demanded a change for a sufficiently long time, the American democracy would have much more to gain than to fear from the independence of the Federal judiciary.

The interest of individual liberty in relation to the organization of democracy demands simply that the individual officeholder should possess an amount of power and independence adequate to the efficient performance of his work.  The work of a justice of the Supreme Court demands a power that is absolute for its own special work, and it demands technically complete independence.  An executive should, as a rule, serve for a longer term, and hold a position of greater independence than a legislator, because his work of enforcing the laws and attending to the business details of government demands continuity, complete responsibility within its own sphere, and the necessity occasionally of braving adverse currents of public opinion.  The term of service and the technical independence of a legislator might well be more restricted than that of an executive; but even a legislator should be granted as much power and independence as he may need for the official performance of his public duty.  The American democracy has shown its enmity to individual political liberty, not because it has required its political favorites constantly to seek reelection, but because it has since 1800 tended to refuse to its favorites during their official term as much power and independence as is needed for administrative, legislative, and judicial efficiency.  It has been jealous of the power it delegated, and has tried to take away with one hand what it gave with the other.