How Virginia Democrats can overturn the redistricting ruling: Retire the Supreme Court
The state Constitution gives lawmakers complete latitude to set the judicial retirement age. They should use it.
Virginia Democrats are looking for a way to overturn the state Supreme Court’s Friday decision invalidating the constitutional amendment temporarily adopting new congressional districts that a majority of voters ratified last month. They have a simple—and lawful—solution: Send the entire court into early retirement.
Article VI, Section 9, of the Virginia Constitution gives the legislature unlimited authority to set the retirement age for judges. It specifies, “The General Assembly may also provide for the mandatory retirement of justices and judges after they reach a prescribed age, beyond which they shall not serve, regardless of the term to which elected or appointed.”
Current law sets the mandatory retirement age at 73: “Any member who attains 73 years of age shall be retired 20 days after the convening of the next regular session of the General Assembly following his seventy-third birthday.”
This number is arbitrary. States around the country with similar laws mandate retirement across a wide range of ages. Virginia lawmakers can simply lower theirs. Make it 54 for Supreme Court justices—the age of the youngest justice, Stephen McCullough, who joined the majority opinion—and make it take effect immediately.
Virginia already uses a similar threshold for public employees: Members of the Virginia Retirement System with five years of service can retire at the age of 55 and receive a partial pension.
The Virginia Constitution ordinarily requires a little bit of time for laws to come into effect. However, appropriations bills aren’t subject to these restrictions, and the legislature hasn’t yet passed its biannual budget bill. A modification of the judicial retirement age could be added to the next budget, which is due by June 30, and would come into effect upon passage.
Then, after the bill is approved, the entire court would retire. A new court would then be appointed that could re-hear the case and have the opportunity to issue a different ruling.
Democrats might prefer other solutions, but if they want to see the will of the voters respected in time for the November elections, there are virtually no other options—and none with as good a chance of success as this one.
Fight fire with fire. The current Republican Party is filthy. They are breaking norms and institutions to implement a fascist agenda nationwide. Laws and voters be damned.
This is exactly what needs to happen. Use the law to create space for us to elbow our way to the front.