Editing United States federal judge (section)

==Tenure==
Section 1 of Article Three of the U.S. Constitution provides that federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour". This clause has long been interpreted to give federal judges [[life tenure]]. Federal judges hold their seats until they resign, die, or are removed from office by [[Federal impeachment in the United States|impeachment]]. Although the legal orthodoxy is that judges cannot be removed from office except by Congressional impeachment, several legal scholars, including [[William Rehnquist]], [[Saikrishna Prakash]], and Steven D. Smith, have argued that the Good Behavior Clause may, in theory, permit removal by way of a writ of ''[[scire facias]]'' filed before a federal court, without resort to impeachment.<ref>Saikrishna Prakash & Steven D. Smith, [http://yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/article/how-to-remove-a-federal-judge  "How To Remove a Federal Judge"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415170558/http://yalelawjournal.org/the-yale-law-journal/article/how-to-remove-a-federal-judge |date=2012-04-15 }}, 116 [[Yale Law Journal|Yale L.J.]] 72 (2006).</ref> [[Deaths of United States federal judges in active service]] may also have profound political and procedural effects, as such circumstances present substantially less opportunity for preparation for an orderly succession.