How could judges be influenced by political pressure?

Judges can be influenced by political pressures because they occupy political positions. This is, perhaps, less true of justices in the federal court system, who enjoy lifetime appointments, but they receive these appointments from Presidents who share their ideological and political perspectives. Also, with the exception of the Supreme Court's nine justices, judges in the federal court system may have designs on promotion through the levels of the courts, so they might be inclined to...

Judges can be influenced by political pressures because they occupy political positions. This is, perhaps, less true of justices in the federal court system, who enjoy lifetime appointments, but they receive these appointments from Presidents who share their ideological and political perspectives. Also, with the exception of the Supreme Court's nine justices, judges in the federal court system may have designs on promotion through the levels of the courts, so they might be inclined to consider their own ambitions (which are closely related to political realities) when they make decisions. At the level of the states, many judges are popularly elected, so it is more obvious how they might be affected by politics in reaching their decisions. If judges reach decisions that run contrary to the views of the electorate, they might be voted out of office in their next election. As a result, judges who face reelection campaigns have an interest in keeping an eye on the political realities they face. For this reason, some have recommended lifetime terms for state judges, and a few states allow judges to have very long terms. Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for example, both allow judges to serve until the age of 70, and Rhode Island justices are appointed for life.