Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts revealed this week that he is not considering retiring, but he has asked two of his longtime friends to intervene if his health is ever in decline.
“I’ve sat down with them and said, ‘I want at the appropriate time’ — because you don’t always notice that you’re slipping — ‘I want the two of you to tell me if it’s time to go.’ It was a long pause, and at once, the two of them said, ‘It’s time to go.’ So I said, ‘Alright, never mind,’” Roberts told a crowd of judges and lawyers gathered in Buffalo, N.Y.
The 70-year-old conservative justice said he has no plans to step down any time soon, joking, “I’m going out feet first” when the question came up.
“I say that now. I mean, I’m sure if your health declines, and if you recognize that you’re a burden to the court rather than part of an assist to everybody, then, it’ll be time to go,” he said.
During a fireside chat commemorating the 125th anniversary of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, the chief justice’s remarks came as the subject of age gains significance across all three arms of government.
Roberts stated that he does not believe age is a problem at the Supreme Court, saying it has only been an issue “just a handful of times.”
“There have been times when somebody has stayed a little longer than they should, then the other colleagues come, and it’s always really worked out, so I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Roberts said.
Roberts said Wednesday that he still feels “pretty healthy.” Despite serving on the Supreme Court for over two decades, he is younger than three of his colleagues, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor.
The top justice spent most of his speech describing his upbringing and youth in Buffalo, stating that he had visited his boyhood home before attending the dinner.
When questioned about the current demands to impeach judges who have ruled against Trump’s administration policy, Roberts just referred to his past criticism of such efforts.
“Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with decisions,” Roberts said.
There’s a growing movement from groups trying to force some U.S. Supreme Court justices into retirement—but, so far, it’s not working.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito recently revealed that he has no plans to step down from the nation’s highest court and plans to continue to serve in his role.
“Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,” said one person close to Alito. “The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is.”
Sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal “tamped down speculation among legal activists that the 74-year-old jurist was readying to retire so that President Donald Trump could fill his seat with a younger conservative.”
Some have also pushed for liberal Justice Sotomayor to retire. She’s the third-oldest judge on the nine-member bench and has long been public about living her life with type 1 diabetes.
Sources revealed that Sotomayor does not plan to go anywhere.
“This is no time to lose her important voice on the court,” one person told the Wall Street Journal, adding that she “takes better care of herself than anyone I know. She’s in great health, and the court needs her now more than ever,” a source said.
