A 96-year-old U.S. federal appeals court judge was barred Wednesday from hearing cases for a year after a panel said she refused to undergo medical testing amid concerns that she is no longer mentally fit to serve on the bench.
It’s the latest development in an unusually public and bitter fight over whether Judge Pauline Newman should continue to serve on the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that has sparked a lawsuit and turned judges against one another.
Newman, a President Ronald Reagan appointee who has been on the court for nearly four decades, insists that she remains physically and mentally fit to decide matters of the law, and has accused her colleagues of making baseless claims in an effort to push her out because of her age.
America in general seems to have a massive problem with absolute geriatrics refusing to make way for the next generation. Their politicians, lawmakers, judges, all older than the hills.
It’s because the system for choosing successors are bad and random. If she quits now her successor will be a Biden appointee and she doesn’t want that. If they set a retirement age and regularly had roundups where each party gets to choose judges based on number of seats they have things would be a lot more shill.
That is if republicans honestly engaged with the systems. We know they don’t which is why nothing will ever work.
She’s 96. She should have retired when Bush was president of that was her concern.
OK, that explains a lot actually. Do you think she’ll try and hold on another four years if Biden gets reelected?
Lets see if she can hold on until the election. at 96 you shouldn’t bet on them being around for another month. she will try to hold on for as long as possible but the grim reaper generally dont care about your schedule.
At 96 she shouldn’t buy any green bananas.
Mitt Romney just stepped down, citing that very reason. The U.K. has a freaking House of Lords and a Monarch that serves no purpose. Don’t throw stones.
Some of those people either can’t afford to retire or have actually returned to the workforce due to a combination of inflation, inadequate safety nets, and the fact that 401ks have not filled the gap created when companies stopped providing pensions.
Why aren’t we more suspicious of the personality type that wants to work til they die at their post?
Sounds like you are very suspicious and so are others or this wouldn’t be a debate worth posting about.
I guess the idea that some people love their work, live for it and derive huge satisfaction from it is a really unusual concept 🤷
Ever drive behind a 96 year old?
Idgaf how much satisfaction they glean, it’s a risk and unacceptable.
Do you honestly think she’s doing some kind of serious, fulfilling legal work at 90-goddamn-6? I’d be more willing to bet she’s got an army of clerks and assistants doing the heavy lifting and she spends her afternoon signing things in between pudding cups.
I don’t for a second believe she’s sitting on that bench for the love of the game. I’d bet anything she just doesn’t want Biden appointing a successor.
A genuinely laughable idea.
I do agree but for “some”* retiree aged people that still work, work is their drive that helps keep them going. Doesn’t mean they should but, it does help keep them (selfishly?) alive.
*Read those in privileged jobs. Not supermarket workers.
Fuck yes I’m suspicious. Have you looked around?
“Life appointments” should really only extend to something like age 75, with yearly mental fitness tests after the social security age.
she was asked to undergo medical fitness test but refused
This is proof enough of senility.
(in context and in my opinion).The lady doth protest too much, methinks
I agree with it except for the mental fitness test.
Tests like that is only going to be used as political fodder.
Just set it at an age. You get to finish out the year’s session after you turn 70 but after that, you aren’t qualified. Go enjoy your life!
Just link it to the legal retirement age.
Sounds like she has a problem being judged by others I don’t believe it a coincidence.
I do not understand why someone in their dang 90s does not retire. Spend your days like my great-grandma did before she passed: time with your family and drinking whiskey on your porch.
Money combined with low stress tasks, probably.
You can imagine the kind of tasks and stress she has that she can allow herself to work until 96.
You think a person in retail, engineering or whatever low to middle income position would want to work until 96?
96… let that sink in. Way too old to making any legal decisions.
96?! Just go home already.
I see what they’re doing. Stress her out enough to kill her. Classic.
