# Good Behavior Clause **Status: stub — expand.** **Article III, § 1.** Federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." The clause is the textual basis of what everyone calls judicial **life tenure**, and of the salary protection that accompanies it. There is no term, no mandatory retirement age, no reappointment, and no performance review. The only exit the Constitution provides other than death or resignation is **impeachment by the House and conviction by two-thirds of the Senate** — a threshold that has removed eight federal judges in more than two centuries, out of fifteen impeached. Two live arguments run off the text. The first is whether "good Behaviour" states an *independent standard* — a tenure condition enforceable by some mechanism short of impeachment — or is simply the description of a life estate whose only remedy is the impeachment process. The settled practice is the latter; the former resurfaces whenever a judge becomes politically intolerable to a majority. The second is that the clause protects the *office*, not the *docket*: nothing in it prevents Congress from restructuring jurisdiction, and [[Senior Status]] shows the office can be retained while active service ends. The compensation half has its own history — it bars diminishing a sitting judge's pay, which is why judicial salaries are adjusted by Congress rather than tied to any automatic mechanism, and why pay freezes are a recurring pressure point on [[Judicial Independence]]. ## See also - [[How a Nominee Becomes a Federal Judge]] — the appointment this tenure follows - [[Senior Status]] · [[Impeachment and Removal Process Flow]] · [[Judicial Independence]] - [[Appointments Clause]] · [[Federal Judiciary Tree]] · [[Separation of Powers]]