Judge Pauline Newman, 97, is the oldest full-time federal judge on the bench, but despite concerns about her ability to do the job, her colleagues on the Washington, D.C. federal court of appeals for the federal circuit are struggling to get rid of her. 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, NBC News reports. Federal judges, as well as Supreme Court justices, have lifetime appointments and there is no easy process for easing them aside. Newman, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to the court that among other things handles appeals in complex patent cases, was sanctioned after she refused to take a neurological test as part of a judicial disability investigation. All three of the oldest active judges sit on the same appeals court. Joining Newman are Judge Alan Lourie, 89, and Judge Timothy Dyk, 87.
While elderly judges on the Supreme Court attract the most attention, “the problem is probably even more acute” on lower courts because of the sheer number of judges, said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a judiciary watchdog. Of the 870 active federal judges, 70 district judges and 34 appeals court judges are eligible to take senior status, whereby judges take on a lesser role but maintain their title, or retire on full pay, according to an NBC News analysis of data on judges from the Federal Judicial Center, the research arm of the judiciary. The Brennan Center for Justice, among others, backs Biden’s recent call for term limits on the Supreme Court. Such a reform could be applied to the judiciary as a whole. Others have proposed a requirement that judges over 70 be cognitively tested. Districts with large workloads could also benefit by an increased number of judgeships, which has been proposed in legislation.
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