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At the end of the year, Justice Gerry Alexander will retire from the Washington State Supreme Court because he’s reached the state’s mandatory retirement age for judges. According to the Washington State Constitution, justices are incapable of making a sound judgment call once they reach 75 years of age.
This is absurd for two reasons.
In this state, it is the citizens who decide which candidate is best qualified to be a judge. Washington is one of only 15 states that pick state judges to the bench in a nonpartisan election.
In only two scenarios – a sitting judge either dying or retiring – can a successor be appointed by the governor without virtue of an election. The problem with such appointments is that the governor is a partisan official and can choose a judge based on his or her own biases.
Judges appointed to the bench by the governor benefit by receiving “incumbent” status in the following election, despite not having served a full six-year term.
Giving someone who hasn’t earned his or her seat at the ballot box a step up on re-election is a clear example of how appointments of judges by the governor create partial court. It contradicts the entire rationale behind voters’ right to elect them to the court in the first place.
The other issue with the mandatory retirement age is the simple fact that it incorrectly assumes a decline in cognitive abilities at the age of 75 is inevitable.
The mandatory retirement age for state judges was adopted in 1951 because, in the years preceding the new provision, there were a handful of Supreme Court judges who suffered from health problems.
Several retired due to their fragile health, and one died less than six months after stepping down.
In 1951, however, life expectancy was 68.4 years and the average United States citizen did not even reach the age of 75.
Today, the average life expectancy is 77.4 years for Americans and many 75-year-olds outperform their younger peers both physically and mentally.
In a time when medical technology is constantly improving and people are living nearly a decade longer than they were a half a century ago, how can we impose an age-based rule that questions the ability of a person to make sound judgment?
Justice Alexander has served on the Washington Supreme Court since 1994. His nine years of service as chief justice distinguish him as the longest-serving chief justice in the state’s history.
He carries with him a long and impressive career as both an attorney and judge in the lower courts. Despite his standing, he’s being asked to leave for reasons that have nothing to do with his performance.
The residents of Washington have the opportunity to vote on state judges. Eliminating mandatory retirement would allow voters to retain the state’s most experienced judges. If judges are willing and able to continue with another term, they should.
In the end, it is the voters who should be able to decide which candidates are qualified and capable to make decisions on the law. If voters think that a judge is losing his or her genius at an old age, they have the opportunity to choose not to put that person back on the bench.
The Legislature needs to present an amendment to the state Constitution to remove the age requirement and put decision-making back in the hands of voters.
Jessica Bowman is the external relations coordinator for the Freedom Foundation, a conservative, free-market policy organization in Olympia.
