Higher judicial pay to cost $1.2B over next decade

WASHINGTON (AP) — Recent court decisions that require the government to restore cost-of-living increases for federal judges will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion over the coming decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The finding highlights the cost of lump-sum pay hikes of at least $25,000 a year ordered after federal courts ruled in 2012 and 2013 that Congress may not withhold automatic pay raises given to judges under a 1989 law.