The federal courts are full of judges who could retire but won’t. Little can be done about it.
www.nbcnews.com
Democrats were able to get President Joe Biden to step aside after a pressure campaign. But it’s much more difficult to force out a federal judge.

Democrats were able to get President Joe Biden to step aside after a pressure campaign. But it’s much more difficult to force out a federal judge.

At the age of 97, Judge Pauline Newman is the oldest full-time federal judge on the bench, but despite concerns about her ability to do the job, her colleagues are struggling to get rid of her.

…

When Democrats decided after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance that he was no longer fit to serve at the top of the ticket, a multifaceted pressure campaign was able to convince him to step aside.

But federal judges, as well as Supreme Court justices, have lifetime appointments and there is no easy process for easing them aside.

With people generally living longer, a lifetime appointment can now last many decades. The average age of a federal judge is 69, according to a recent study, and there is no clean way to force someone to step down.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    That’s neatly symmetrical, but I don’t see an objective reason to have it be that way. Symmetry for symmetry’s sake isn’t by default better than anything else.

    • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      2 months ago
      • Rhetorically, it helps make the case to any naysayers who’ve enabled an age-minimum but decry an age-maximum is wrong.
      • It effectively achieves the same result of tying the age-limit to retirement age without giving legislators the incentive to simply raise retirement age.
      • It will always float significantly below the median life-expectancy, which even if life-expectancy overall improves marginally by a couple of years (in itself a good thing of course), it still gives a buffer to the point where cognition begins to increasingly wane.

      Realistically I’d be fine with a final term beginning at 65 and ending at 69.