Happy Friday from Avalon and Brad, and welcome to another round-up of the week's news from and about the judicial bench. This week we heard from an outgoing circuit judge on her thoughts on mandatory retirement ages for judges. Spoiler alert, she supports them. We've also got some thoughts from law professors on Judge Jerry Smith's recent dissental raising concerns over his colleagues abusing non-publication rules. One court watcher says while there are checks in place to discourage judges from manipulating publication to avoid review of a decision, it could become more prevalent as courts become more polarized. 

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Judge Diane Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

This Judge Supports Mandatory Retirement Ages

Retired Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner famously called the U.S. Judiciary "the nation's premier geriatric occupation." A long-debated fix to this issue, a mandatory retirement age for federal judges, was discussed by former Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Diane Wood in a recent interview.

"An older judge might begin to suffer from dementia, or an older judge might be on medications that are necessary but just simply don't allow the job to be done as it should be," Wood told former Eastern District of California District Judge David F. Levi for Duke Law's Judgment Calls podcast published earlier this month.