574
Opinion of the Court
a noncontributory system, while the system to which other federal employees belonged was a contributory system. Id., at 39-40; Reply Brief for United States 16.
This rationale, however, is the Government's and not necessarily that of Congress, which was silent on the matter. Cf. Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn. of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U. S. 29, 50 (1983) (expressing concern at crediting post hoc explanation of agency action).
More importantly, the judicial retirement system is non-contributory because it reflects the fact that the Constitution itself guarantees federal judges life tenure—thereby constitutionally permitting federal judges to draw a salary for life simply by continuing to serve. Cf. Booth v. United States, 291 U. S. 339, 352 (1934) (holding that Compensation Clause protects salary of judge who has retired). That fact means that a contributory system, in all likelihood, would not work. And, of course, as of 1982, the noncontributory pension salary benefits were themselves part of the judge's compensation. The 1983 statute consequently singles out judges for adverse treatment solely because of a feature required by the Constitution to preserve judicial independence. At the same time, the "equaliz[ation]" in question takes place not by offering all current federal employees (including judges) the same opportunities but by employing a statutory disadvantage which offsets a constitutionally guaranteed advantage. Hence, to accept the "justification" offered here is to permit, through similar reasoning, taxes which have the effect of weakening or eliminating those constitutional guarantees necessary to secure judicial independence, at least insofar as similar guarantees are not enjoyed by others. This point would be obvious were Congress, say, to deny some of the benefits of a tax reduction to those with constitutionally guaranteed life tenure to make up for the fact that other employees lack such tenure. Although the relationships
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