Justice Alito Is Too Young To Quit the Court

Talk that Associate Justice Samuel Alito might step down from the Supreme Court moves us to offer our advice — don’t do it. Stay on the bench. This aging sage is a symbol of a reform that has been long favored by the Sun. That reform would reject all talk of establishing some sort of mandatory retirement age for the justices. Instead the idea would be to keep life tenure but limit membership on the high court to those who are age 75 or older.Feature the beauty of this plan. It would have the inherent virtue of addressing the concern of those who think a justice shouldn’t be on the court for as long as some of the berobed toddlers could yet be if they were appointed at an age of inexperience. Some of the justices — your Amy Coney Barrett, say, or your Elena Kagan — were appointed before they had fully learned to read and when they had no idea of what they think of the Constitution.How could they? Justice Barrett was only 48 when she was confirmed. She barely knew how to wield a gavel. Justice Elena Kagan, 50 when nominated, is under the same blindfold. Where does one of such a tender age come off telling a litigant what the Constitution says? Or take Justice Neil Gorsuch, who, confirmed at 49, proceeded to give away to the native Americans the state of Oklahoma as if it were a broken set of electric trains.What about the chief justice? He, at 71, is a youngster who can’t yet decide if tariffs are constitutional. But two justices, per the Sun’s plan, are old, meaning wise, enough. One is Samuel Alito, who will turn 76 in April. He’s at what the Sun likes to call the “age of parchment.” One has to be that old just to have uncluttered one’s mind. The other is Clarence Thomas, who, at 77, is just hitting his stride as he paces the corridors of the Constitution.Of course, talk of retirement by Justice Alito — or, say, Justice Thomas — is being mooted in part due to partisan considerations and in part due to plain old jealousy of the wisdom that comes only to persons over the age of 75. The Great Scalia alluded to this logic when, columnist Josh Hammer noted the other day, he said that he was hardly fain to be “replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing what I’ve tried to do for 25-26 years.”As it turned out, Scalia’s death in February 2016 could well have led to his replacement being named by President Obama. A young whippersnapper, Merrick Garland, was nominated for the job, only to be left cooling his heels while the GOP-controlled Senate held Scalia’s seat open until the November 2016 election. That brought to the White House President Trump, who nominated to the high bench the fresh-faced Justice Gorsuch.When Justice Ruth Ginsburg died, age 87, liberals fumed that she should have been replaced by a younger judge when the Democrats were doing the nominating. She was just put on the court too early, before she began to realize that the conservatives were right. The Atlantic used the word “catastrophic” to describe her decision to finish her constitutional tenure. Why is it “so hard to convince a justice to retire?” the Atlantic mused.Maybe they’re waiting for wisdom. We get that some wiseacre is going to point out that the senators who must confirm justices themselves have to wait until they’re at least age 30 in order to be elected as members of the upper chamber. The Framers should have known that was too young, but at the convention at Philadelphia only one of the Founders — Ben Franklin — was old enough to think clearly. Then again, too, he was 81.

Justice Alito Is Too Young To Quit the Court

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