WHO SAYS the law has no sense of irony? In the name of “protecting and maintaining the integrity of the judiciary,” a majority of the state’s highest court has decided to curtail it—severely. How? By stripping judges of their retirement pay if they choose to stay on the bench upon reaching the age of 70.
Like some kind of judicial Godfather, a 5-to-2 majority of the court is making the state’s judges an offer they can’t refuse. But the court’s majority claims it’s only encouraging judges to quit the bench, not forcing them to do so. To quote one of the dissenters in this case, The Hon. Paul Danielson, that’s a “complete and total fiction.” For the message this decision actually conveys is “leave or we’ll steal your wallet.” As he explained:
“It is settled Arkansas law that a retirement allowance financed over a period of years by the joint contributions of the employer and the employee represents compensation rather than a mere gratuity. As such, it is a vested right not subject to impairment. To forfeit that right is not free.”
The court’s chief justice, former professor and shining light, The Hon. Howard Brill, who joined the dissenters in this case, noted: “Never has a judge elected to forfeit the pension and continue on the bench. Instead, some have retired; some have gone back into the practice of law. The reality of the judicial-retirement system reveals the flawed nature of the false choice. The result is confiscatory. It harshly penalizes those judges who wish to exercise their right to run for office . . . and continue to serve.”
Q.E.D, case closed, and judgment rendered unjustly.