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.
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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.
Keeping people alive longer doesn’t necessarily mean they stay capable of doing their jobs longer. It should be a fixed age that’s only changed if there’s a breakthrough in preventing cognitive decline.
I would say they should be tested for mental acuity but they would just game the system somehow.
35 is the minimum age to be President. 17 years from being an adult. So perhaps go 17 years below the median life expectancy, somewhere around 60?
Honestly that’s the problems. The median life expectancy is in the upper 70s. Once you factor in having all the benefits of the USA health care system but none of the cost, it gets even higher. The average for 1787 was in the upper 30s.
The concept of a judge in their 90s was as outlandish as the concept of 35 million people living in California.
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.
- 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.
Honestly, 35 is too young to be president. 40 to 60 is probably the sweet spot. Make the upper limit 65 or 70 (but start negotiating at 60).
You think? I don’t think 35 is too young. In fact, we don’t know because we’ve never tried. JFK was youngest at 43 and considered one of the best. Mid thirties is peak mental and physical health with enough time to foster education and experience in my view.
For instance, if AOC became president after 35, she’d be fantastic independent of how slow the rest of the geriatrics around her hold her back.
Ultimately if you can go to war, you should be able to run for office. Age maxes make more sense for several reasons than age minimums.
