The state constitution requires judges to retire in the calendar year in which they turn 70. Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito is one of five judges suing to stay on the bench.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said today it would hear — and fast-track — a case that will determine if the justices, or any Pennsylvania judges, can serve on the bench past age 70.
The court agreed to consider a challenge by Montgomery County Judge Arthur Tilson to the state constitution’s requirement that judges retire in the calendar year in which they turn 70.
The one-page order said oral argument would be held in May in Harrisburg, suggesting the matter could be resolved before the fall election.
Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito is one of the five judges from across the state that sued, arguing the Pennsylvania Constitution violates the U.S. Constitution by forcing judges to step down at age 70.
The judges are looking to repeal that portion of the state constitution and instead rely on existing measures that can remove judges incapable of performing their duty because of physical and mental handicaps.
If the state constitution stands, Zito would be forced out of office Jan. 1, 2014. The other judges in the suit were either pushed out of office this year or will have to step down by Jan. 1, 2015, at the latest, according to the lawsuit.
It’s a matter of particular importance to Chief Justice Ronald Castille, who is running for retention this year but will turn 70 in 2014.
Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, a group that works to improve the state’s justice system, takes no position on whether the 70-year-old limit is good public policy.
“It’s impossible to make a blanket statement,” Marks said. “Aging affects different people differently.”
Tilson's petition named as respondents Gov. Tom Corbett, Corbett’s secretary of state and the judicial system’s court administrator.
Corbett’s office referred questions to the attorney general’s office, which issued a statement saying its lawyers were looking forward to defending the law before the high court.
In an interview published today in The Intelligencer of Doylestown, Tilson lawyer William Hangley said the retirement age amounts to a form of age discrimination. Tilson earned a second 10-year term in 2011, when he was 68.
“Judge Tilson is an active, vibrant person who is fully as capable as a younger judge, but also has the advantage of experience that a younger judge might not have,” Hangley told the paper.
The justices, in taking the case, told the parties to file briefs that address whether the constitution’s section that contains the age limit violates Article 1, the Declaration of Rights, which includes a nondiscrimination provision.
