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Federal Judicial Methuselah Award Winners

 

The state of California presented Nathan Daly Clark with a law license in 2008 after he graduated from the University of California Hastings School of Law.

 

FYI:Methuselah was a biblical patriarch and a figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He had the longest lifespan of all those given in the Bible, having died at the age of 969.

 

As I suspect you know, Federal judges are appointed for life.  Unlike most state courts that mandate retirement at age 70, there is no mandatory retirement age for federal judges.  Therefore, they can remain on the bench as long as they please. 

 

Making matters even more distasteful is the fact that federal judges can take on Senior Status when 65 years old. The sum of the judge’s age and years of service must be at least 80 years in total. Additionally, the judge must have been on the bench for at least ten years.

 

After assuming senior status, a judge is required to work at least 10 hours a week, meaning he/she must carry at least a 25 percent caseload.  This unjustified taxpayer funded largesse allows for a senior judge working 10 hours a week to receive the following income.

  • $246,600 – Circuit Appeal Judge
  • $232,600 – District Court Judge

Federal judges are the only federal or state employees who can work a mere 10 hours a week and receive the salary of their fellow fulltime compatriots. I’m betting if you were of state/federal employee you would just love to be allowed to do the same.

 

I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want my fate decided by some judge who was in his late nineties, let alone one that was 104.  Below is a list of the top 10 Methuselah Award Winners.

 

Name

DOB

Appointee

Court

Sr. Status

Sr. Years

Death – Age

Wesley Brown

1907

JFK – 1962

DCKS

1979

48 years

01/2012 = 104

Joseph Woodrough

1873

Wilson – 1916

DCNE

1961

16 years

10/1977 = 104

William Bootle

1902

Ike - 1954

MDGA

1972

33 years

01/2005 = 103

Luther Bohanon

1902

JFK – 1961

WDOK

1974

29 years

07/2003 = 101

Louis Rosenberg

1898

JFK – 1962

WDPA

1976

23 years

07/1999 = 101

Charles Joiner

1916

Nixon – 1972

EDNY

1984

33 years

03/2017 = 101

John Bartels

1897

Ike – 1959

EDNY

1973

24 years

02/1997 = 100

Arthur Stanley Jr.

1901

Ike – 1958

DCKS

1971

30 years

01/2001 = 100

Jack Weinstein

1921

LBJ – 1967

EDNY

1993

28 years

06/2021 = 100