Judicial retirement age heads to the full CRC: Proposal to allow independents to vote in partisan primaries stymied.

A proposed constitutional amendment to raise the mandatory judicial retirement age from 70 to 75 is headed to the full Constitution Revision Commission.

Proposal 41, by CRC member and former Bar President Bill Schifino, passed the Ethics and Elections Committee 8-0 on January 12. It had earlier unanimously passed the Judicial Committee, which Schifino chairs. It has been placed on the calendar for the full commission, although it was not immediately clear when the commission would take it up.

Schifino fared less well with his other amendment considered by the Ethics and Elections Committee that day, Proposal 62. That would allow voters who register with no party affiliation to vote in partisan primaries.

Although it got strong support from several organizations and people testifying at the meeting, several committee members raised questions and the issue wound up being temporally postponed when it appeared it might be defeated.

Retirement Age

On Proposal 41, Schifino noted when the current judicial retirement age of 70 was set, the average lifespan was 69 years. Now it's 80, he said, and people are generally healthier at an older age.

One change from the present language is that a judge's or justice's 75th birthday would be the mandatory retirement time. Currently, judges and justices may continue to serve when they reach 70 if they are more than halfway through their six-year terms. Schifino said that would prevent the current situation in which three Supreme Court justices who are reaching the mandatory retirement age may leave the bench on the same day if they all serve until the end of their terms next January.

"We took a good hard look at this. I think it makes good sense to keep experienced judges on the bench," Schifino said.

He noted he has another proposal that requires 10 years' experience as a lawyer before becoming a judge (currently the standard is five years for trial judges and 10 years for the appellate bench) and Schifino dubbed that and Proposal 41 as his "experience matters" initiatives. He added if both pass the CRC, he expects they will be presented as one amendment to voters.

In response to a question, Schifino said any judge scheduled to retire next January would not be affected by the amendment, which has a July 1, 2019, effective date. But he said any of those retiring judges would be free to seek a fresh appointment or election although they would again have to retire before serving a full six years.

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