Judicial retirement

New Yorkers will vote on a ballot measure that would increase the age at which appellate judges have to retire to age 80. The New York Times reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo has been quietly opposing Proposition 6. One reason may be that if the ballot meaure passes it would "allow two Republican judges to serve longer terms, limiting his ability to put a lasting liberal stamp on the Court of Appeals," The Times reports.

Raising the retirement ages of judges isn't just a New York issue. Legislation in Pennsylvania has advanced that would increase the retirement age for judges from age 70 to age 75. The legislation has to pass the Pennsylvania General Assembly another year before it can go to voters to approve it in 2015.

After Pennsylvania state-court judges lost their challenge in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to the constitutionality of the requirement that they retire in the year that they turn 70, they now have lost in federal court too, The Legal Intelligencer reports. The federal judge rejected both their equal protection and due process claims, citing binding precedent. The judge also rejected arguments that he should apply a higher standard of review than rational basis and that the US Supreme Court's holding in United States v. Windsor rejecting the federal Defense Of Marriage Act provided more support for the judicial plaintiffs' position. There also are bills pending in the General Assembly to put constitutional amendments before voters on either eliminating judicial retirement altogether or to raise the mandatory retirement age to 75.