THE reason federal judges are given LIFETIME appointments is so they WON'T have to worry about politics. If they had TERMS, they would worry about "What will I do when my term is up? I DON'T WANT TO PISS OFF ABC or DEF or XYZ, because I'll probably want to try to GET A JOB there."
And don't kid yourself--the DECISIONS are NOT made at the HEARINGS. The judges read LOADS of MOTIONS, BRIEFS, and other documents--THOUSANDS of pages. With the Supreme Court, not only the PARTIES submit briefs, but NON-parties can submit "amicus curie" briefs ("friend of the Court") to point out OTHER important things none of the PARTIES pointed out. Amicus briefs CAN be submitted to intermediate appellate courts but that's much less common.
Also, the judges' LAW CLERKS are ATTORNEYS who graduated at the top of their class from highly regarded law schools. ALL of them DISCUSS the case IN DETAIL in private before reaching their decisions.
And in the photo, keep in mind that SHE'S NOT IN COURT. This was a STATE OF THE UNION speech.
