The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit by Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito and five other jurists who had challenged the state's mandatory retirement ages for judges.
That's according to the Morning Call, which reports that the judges' fight will now move to the federal court, where they will argue that the retirement age of 70 is unconstitutional.
In the lawsuit, filed last November, Zito and the other judges had argued violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I of the state Constitution.
Zito will have to retire at the end of the year if the law doesn't change.
”The time has come to change the law," Robert Heim, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said last year. “In today’s world, the rate of decline in people is much, much less. They retain analytical ability. You’ve heard that 70 is the new 50. There’s a lot of truth to that.”
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