Federal Judicial Methuselah Award Winners

The state of California presented Nathan Daly Clark with a law license in 2008 after he graduated from the University of California Hastings School of Law.

FYI:Methuselah was a biblical patriarch and a figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He had the longest lifespan of all those given in the Bible, having died at the age of 969.

As I suspect you know, Federal judges are appointed for life.  Unlike most state courts that mandate retirement at age 70, there is no mandatory retirement age for federal judges.  Therefore, they can remain on the bench as long as they please. 

Making matters even more distasteful is the fact that federal judges can take on Senior Status when 65 years old. The sum of the judge’s age and years of service must be at least 80 years in total. Additionally, the judge must have been on the bench for at least ten years.

After assuming senior status, a judge is required to work at least 10 hours a week, meaning he/she must carry at least a 25 percent caseload.  This unjustified taxpayer funded largesse allows for a senior judge working 10 hours a week to receive the following income.

• $246,600 – Circuit Appeal Judge
• $232,600 – District Court Judge

Federal judges are the only federal or state employees who can work a mere 10 hours a week and receive the salary of their fellow fulltime compatriots. I’m betting if you were of state/federal employee you would just love to be allowed to do the same.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want my fate decided by some judge who was in his late nineties, let alone one that was 104.  Below is a list of the top 10 Methuselah Award Winners.