Mandatory Retirement for Judges
Sarah Palin just appointed 47-year-old Morgan Christen to Alaska’s Supreme Court. Christen will have the opportunity to serve up to 23 years in her new position before Alaska’s mandatory retirement age for judges kicks in at 70.
Plainly put, 23 years is more than long enough, though it would be nearly a decade less than the term served by Warren Matthews, the man that Christen is replacing.
Federal judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court, should be subject to a similar mandatory retirement age. 70 might be a little aggressive for a SCOTUS position, perhaps 75 might be more appropriate, but a fixed endpoint is needed for non-elected, effectively unimpeachable officials.
The wisdom in venerable elder statesmen should not be taken lightly. But service into one’s dotage is no service at all, it is a disservice. Consider Robert Byrd, for example, as one who should have left office long since and would have, if the nation’s interests were first in his heart.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
