Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges, and judges in some state court systems. After federal judges have reached a certain combination of age and years of service on the federal courts, they are allowed to assume senior status. A judge must be at least 65 and have served for 15 years to qualify, with one fewer year of service required for each additional year of age. When that happens, they receive the full salary of a judge but work only part-time. Additionally, senior judges do not occupy seats; instead, their seats become vacant, and the President may appoint new full-time judges to fill their spots. Depending on how heavy a caseload they carry, senior judges remain entitled to maintain a staffed office, including a secretary and one or more law clerks.
Read more about Senior Status: Statutory Requirements, Nomenclature, Assignment, History, Similar Systems Outside The US Federal Judiciary, Constitutionality
Famous quotes containing the words senior and/or status:
“I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)