The issue of mandatory judicial retirement ages has grown more and more pressing as the general populace sees its life expectancy increase. Several state legislatures have grappled with the issue. Below is a hearing conducted before the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee on January 19, 2012 on SJR 408, an effort to increase Florida’s mandatory retirement age.
Florida’s Constitution specifies in Art. V, Sec. 8 that judges must retire at age 70, but may serve out their current term if they have already served roe than 50% of it.
No justice or judge shall serve after attaining the age of seventy years except upon temporary assignment or to complete a term, one-half of which has been served.
SJR 408 changes the bolded text to read “seventy five”. It also makes some grammatical corrections (changes “No justice or judge…” to “A justice or judge…”)
The video below gives some of the pros and cons heard at the committee hearing. In the end, the bill passed 5-0 and was sent to the Senate Budget Committee.
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