'Superannuated' Supreme Court justices raise concerns of cognitive decline, op-ed says
A law professor who once wrote a law review article about “mental decrepitude” on the U.S. Supreme Court says he is concerned about the possibility of impending cognitive decline among current justices.
In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, University of Pittsburgh law professor David Garrow says he predicted in the article published 15 years ago that, in the next five decades, a half dozen justices would harm their reputations by remaining on the bench too long. “I’m concerned that my prediction is about to come true,” he writes.
“Today,” he writes, “we have four Supreme Court justices who are superannuated: Stephen G. Breyer is 77, Anthony M. Kennedy will turn 80 this summer, Antonin Scalia will celebrate his 80th birthday on March 11, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will celebrate her 83rd four days later. Both Clarence Thomas, 67, and Samuel A. Alito Jr., 65, also qualify for Social Security.”
Ginsburg and Scalia are “both putting themselves in the way of embarrassment,” Garrow says.
Ginsburg fell asleep during the State of the Union and during an oral argument, and she talks about pending cases, “which, if not a sign that she’s forgotten the rules, is an indication that she’s beyond respecting them,” Garrow says.
Scalia, on the other hand, “sounds increasingly irritated in his opinions and public speeches.”
Garrow praises a program in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that offers mental health assessments and a hotline to report signs of cognitive decline. But the federal judiciary should take action across the board, Garrow says.
He calls on Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to use his authority to require Supreme Court justices and others to undergo regular mental health checkups. The chief justice could also recommend a judicial retirement age of 70 or 75. He and future nominees could also pledge to serve for no more than 18 years, suggested by scholars as a reasonable limit on judicial tenure, Garrow says.
