The Court of Appeals ruled that holding judicial salaries hostage to legislative salaries was unconstitutional. As a consequence, the Legislature and the Governor agreed to change the system for the compensation of judges. Decisions regarding judicial salaries are now made every four years by an independent commission rather than by the executive and legislative branches. And in recent years salaries of state court judges have been significantly increased to approximate the salaries of federal judges, which, before the lawsuit was brought, were considerably higher than state court judges. They are now roughly equal.