State high court dismisses mandatory retirement suit
The state Supreme Court has rejected four judges’ challenge to the mandatory retirement age for jurists in Pennsylvania, a decision which should also trigger a ruling in a federal case brought by a retired Fayette County judge regarding the same issue.
Montgomery County Judge Arthur Tilson, and a number of other jurists, including Fayette County Senior Judge Gerald R. Solomon, first sued in Commonwealth Court, alleging that forcing judges to retire at age 70 violates their equal protection and due-process rights under the state and U.S. Constitutions.
Because the suit makes claims under the federal constitution, Chief Deputy Attorney General Gregory R. Neuhauser transferred the case into the state’s middle district federal court. Neuhauser represents Gov. Tom Corbett and state Secretary of State Carol T. Aichele, who are named as defendants in the suit. The filing also named as defendants, state Treasurer Rob McCord and state Court Administrator Zygmont A. Pines.
In January, Tilson removed himself from the suit he initiated with Solomon and took the matter to the state Supreme Court, which agreed to hear arguments expeditiously. Solomon continued pursuing the litigation at the federal level, and the judges overseeing his case in Middle District Court stayed the matter pending the outcome of Tilson’s case.
In Monday’s ruling, the state Supreme Court judges indicated that “the proper approach of conforming the Constitution more closely with petitioners’ vision of how experiential changes should be taken into account is to pursue further amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
The panel wrote that while “there is colorable merit to petitioners’ position that, theoretically at least, there is some possibility that a constitutional amendment might impinge on inherent, inalienable rights otherwise recognized in the Constitution itself.”
The Supreme Court judges noted that they did not believe that the constitution’s framers “regarded an immutable ability to continue in public service as a commissioned judge beyond 70 years of age as being within the scope of the inherent rights of mankind.”
The Middle District Court has yet to rule on Solomon’s suit. Because he had not yet read the Supreme Court, Solomon declined to comment.
The Supreme Court panel remanded the cases to the state Commonwealth Court, and ordered the lower court to dismiss the suit.