Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Old People

If you had a grandparent in their 70's, you'd probably be a bit squeamish to, say, leave your child alone with them for hours, or sit in the passenger seat while they drive a car. You probably wouldn't let them climb a ladder to change a light bulb, and you CERTAINLY wouldn't allow their decades-in-the-past way of thinking about things really affect how you live your life; you humor them and pat them on their head while they blather about the "good ol' days!!" when shoes were a nickel and black people used different water fountains and everybody respected their elders and got dressed up to go to the airport. And yet we don't seem to mind putting the highest judicial body of the United States whose jurisdiction includes the entire country in their hands, do we?

John Paul Stevens 88(!)
Antonin Scalia 73
Anthony Kennedy 72
Ruth Bader Ginsberg 76
Stephen Breyer 70
David Souter is a spring chicken-y 69

This seems incredible to me. More so, I have never once even heard anybody remark "isn't it strange that the most powerful judges in the land are mostly of the age of senility?" I'm not saying old people are as a rule useless, but for such powerful, important decision-making positions to be staffed by them? Seems odd, no?

1 comment:

Nerdhappy said...

You talk about them as if they're gonna keep their jobs forever, or until they die or something... which is just silly, right?