Age limits, which I have somewhat reconsidered as to the details

Politics
1

Having mildly revamped my proposal.

If the effective date of the amendment was with the 2026 election and all 100 Senators were up for election under the provisions of Section 1 & 8. Essentially any Senator (or other person) born prior to January 3, 1956 would be disqualified. 45 of 100 sitting Senators would be ineligible under the new age limit in the first election for which it could take effect. 14 additional Senators would age out for either the 2028 or 2030 elections.

If there is any legislative body that needs to be blown up and reworked on such a drastic scale, it is the United States Senate.

Interestingly, it would only take out 85 Representatives if effective for the 2026 election, but the age curve of the House is significantly younger than that of the Senate, so the Senate would be far more heavily impacted as a percentage of members.

It would have no effect in the 2024 Presidential election due to the 18 month implementation delay. For 2028, it would disqualify anybody born prior to January 20, 1958.

I deal with Officers of the United States (both Principle and Inferior) and employees of the United States as well.

I structure the Article III Judicial restrictions to create a system where Justices and Judges are not able to control the date of their mandated senior status/retirement and thus cannot influence the choice of their successor. It also creates a system where problematic judges (health, misconduct) can effectively be forcibly retired, although impeachment would still be needed to strip them of their pension.

Amendment ???

Section 1. Effective the first general election held at least 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment, no person shall be eligible for election to the offices of President, Vice President, Presidential Elector, Senator or Representative, who shall attain to the age of seventy five years prior to the last day of the term sought, December 31st immediately subsequent to the election in the case of Presidential Electors. This shall include appointment to any vacant senatorial office. This section shall not be construed to apply to individuals elected or holding office prior to the effective date of this section, for the remainder of such term of office.

Section 2. No person shall hold any office of honor or profit under the United States who shall have attained to the age of seventy five years prior to appointment and any person holding such office shall relinquish it on the day they attain to the age of seventy five years. The operation of this section shall be deferred until 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment.

Section 3. No person shall serve as a non officer employee of the United States after attaining to the age of seventy five years, nor shall any person serve as a non officer employee of the United States for greater than a cumulative total of forty years. However, employees originally hired under the Civil Service Retirement System who are entitled to maximize retirement at forty one years and eleven months of service may continue in service until the day they maximize retirement, regardless of their age, but shall retire on that day. The operation of this section shall be deferred until 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment.

Section 4. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior shall retire from active service on the day their whole year age plus their whole year combined terms of service under Article III shall equal to eighty, provided they shall have served ten years in combined service under Article III and shall have attained to the age of sixty five years. Justices and Judges who are retired from active service under this section shall be entitled to assume senior status and remain in service, but in no case shall any Justice or Judge remain in service after attaining to seventy five years of age. Justices and judges in senior status shall receive one hundred percent of the salary of an active service Justice or Judge. Retired justices and judges shall receive an annuity equal to one hundred percent of the salary they were receiving at the time of their retirement.

Section 5. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior, who shall have accumulated fifteen years of combined service under Article III, but who have not attained to sixty five years of age may take deferred retirement. They may terminate service, and upon attaining to sixty five years of age, shall receive an annuity equal to one hundred percent of the salary they were receiving when they terminated service.

Section 6. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior who are voluntarily or involuntarily certified as disabled shall immediately be retired from active service and shall receive an annuity equal to the salary they were receiving at retirement, provided they have served ten years or more of combined Article III service. A Justice or Judge who has served less than two and one half years of combined Article III service shall be separated with no retirement annuity. A Justice or Judge who has served two and one half years to five years shall receive an annuity equal to fifty percent of the salary they were receiving at retirement. A Justice or Judge who has served six, seven, eight or nine years of combined Article III service shall receive an annuity equal to sixty, seventy, eighty or ninety percent, respectively, of the salary they were receiving at retirement.

Section 7. The operation of sections 4, 5 and 6 of this article of amendment shall be deferred until the first day of the first presidential term of office subsequent to ratification of this amendment.

Section 8. The terms of all Senators shall expire at the first general election held at least 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment, regardless of when they were previously scheduled to expire. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of this election, they shall be divided equally into two classes, with the Senators of each individual State in separate classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year and of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, so that one half may be chosen every second year. Thereafter, Senators shall serve for the term of four years.

Section 9. This article of amendment shall not be construed as preempting the operation of any current statute imposing stricter age and tenure limits on Officers of the United States and employees of the United States, including those imposed on members of the armed forces, members of the foreign service, members of the senior foreign service, law enforcement and other similarly situated Officers and employees.

Section 10. Congress by law may impose age and tenure limits on elected officials, Officers and Judicial Officers and employees of the district constituting the Seat of Government of the United States and territories and possessions of the United States.

Section 11. Congress may not impose age and tenure limits on elected officials, Officers and Judicial Officers or employees of the several States, nor may they make adopting such limits a requirement for disbursement of any funding from the United States, regardless of purpose.

2

Call it the Fetterman initiative!

2 Likes
3

That’s an awful lot of effort put into something that will never happen.

1 Like
4

Repeal the 17th

5 Likes
5

Democrats will never go along with that. 17th was big mistake IMO

6 Likes
6

Fetterman is a different case altogether. (Disability rather than sheer age, though the issue of disability in office needs to be dealt with, just not by this amendment.)

I would choose to call it the Trump/Biden/Grassley/Feinstein Initiative. Not being partisan with this, so I would be mindful to ensure Republican and Democrat names are included and in equal measure, as both parties have a long history of contributing to this issue.

Thurmond/Byrd.

I could list many more bipartisan pairs.

Hell, I could even give a few court pairings, such as Rehnquist/Douglas, two Justices who both overstayed their competency.

1 Like
7

Things will never happen at all if we just give up and never try to make it happen.

Every piece of legislation started out as an idea.

2 Likes
8

Republicans (talking about the voting population, not politicians) would not go along with repealing the 17th any more than Democrats would.

I assure you, if you ask the average Republican voter if they want Senators changed from elected by people to elected by Legislature, they would say hell no and the average Democrat voter would respond the same way, as would Independents and third party voters.

Whether the 17th was right or wrong is irrelevant. It’s done and cannot be undone.

9

Things will never happen at all if we just give up and never try to make it happen. :wink:

2 Likes
10

Yes, but virtually every important piece of legislation ever enacted was substantially different than the initial proposal. The opposition to what you propose coming from the members in Congress who would be directly affected by it would be enormous. There is no way they would ever pass such a Bill as proposed.

11

A wee bit of a difference.

Age limits have strong bipartisan support among the general public.

There is probably less than 0.25% support for repealing the 17th Amendment, a view which is pretty much remained a fringe movement.

The underlying idea has to have broad support before it is worth pushing.

Repealing the 17th amendment does not have such support while imposing age limits do.

12

I don’t expect my proposal to pass in the form I have laid out.

Indeed, the portions relating to Officers and employees of the United States could be enacted without a Constitutional amendment.

And things would clearly change during Congressional consideration.

The idea is just to get the ball rolling at this point.

13

Women are still waiting for the ERA ball to roll. It’s been 51 years now … and counting. And that one was a lot less controversial than yours.

As you get older and reality soaks in, hope evolves into cynicism.

1 Like
14

Only because of ignorance and Dunning-Kruger.

We need a good education system. Constitution, government, civics.

15

I have streamlined my proposal a bit, omitting reference to employees, who could be age/term limited via statute. I also omitted a couple of sections that appeared unnecessary.

Pelosi’s reelection announcement, coupled with recent polls showing heavy support for age limits among the general public, warrant a further exploration of this topic. Also, in addition to the concerns of age vis a vis health, there is also the issue of gerontocracy.

I have seen a couple of introduced proposals in Congress, but they don’t go far enough. And Senate reform simply needs to be part and parcel of such a proposal.

BTW, my proposal in regards to Article III Justices and Judges mirrors current practice, except as to REQUIRING Justices and Judges to retire from active service on the day of eligibility and except for the deferred retirement proposal.

Amendment ???

Section 1. Effective the first general election held at least 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment, no person shall be eligible for election to the offices of President, Vice President, Presidential Elector, Senator or Representative, who shall attain to the age of seventy five years prior to the last day of the term sought, December 31st immediately subsequent to the election in the case of Presidential Electors. This shall include appointment to any vacant senatorial office. This section shall not be construed to apply to individuals elected or holding office prior to the effective date of this section, for the remainder of such term of office.

Section 2. No person shall hold any office of honor or profit under the United States who shall have attained to the age of seventy five years prior to appointment and any person holding such office shall relinquish it on the day they attain to the age of seventy five years. The operation of this section shall be deferred until 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment. For purposes of this section only, an office of honor or profit shall include Judges appointed under Article I and Article IV of the Constitution, as well as United States Bankruptcy Judges and United States Magistrate Judges, but shall exclude Justices or Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior.

Section 3. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior shall retire from active service on the day their whole year age plus their whole year combined terms of service under Article III shall equal to eighty, provided they shall have served ten years in combined service under Article III and shall have attained to the age of sixty five years. Justices and Judges who are retired from active service under this section shall be entitled to assume senior status and remain in service, but in no case shall any Justice or Judge remain in service after attaining to seventy five years of age. Justices and judges in senior status shall receive one hundred percent of the salary of an active service Justice or Judge. Retired justices and judges shall receive an annuity equal to one hundred percent of the salary they were receiving at the time of their retirement.

Section 4. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior, who shall have accumulated fifteen years of combined service under Article III, but who have not attained to sixty five years of age may take deferred retirement. They may terminate service, and upon attaining to sixty five years of age, shall receive an annuity equal to one hundred percent of the salary they were receiving when they terminated service.

Section 5. Justices and Judges appointed under Article III of the Constitution of the United States to serve during good behavior who are voluntarily or involuntarily certified as disabled shall immediately be retired from active service and shall receive an annuity equal to the salary they were receiving at retirement, provided they have served ten years or more of combined Article III service. A Justice or Judge who has served less than two and one half years of combined Article III service shall be separated with no retirement annuity. A Justice or Judge who has served two and one half years to five years shall receive an annuity equal to fifty percent of the salary they were receiving at retirement. A Justice or Judge who has served six, seven, eight or nine years of combined Article III service shall receive an annuity equal to sixty, seventy, eighty or ninety percent, respectively, of the salary they were receiving at retirement.

Section 6. The operation of sections 3, 4 and 5 of this article of amendment shall be deferred until the first day of the first presidential term of office subsequent to ratification of this amendment.

Section 7. The terms of all Senators shall expire at the first general election held at least 18 months subsequent to the ratification of this article of amendment, regardless of when they were previously scheduled to expire. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of this election, they shall be divided equally into two classes, with the Senators of each individual State in separate classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year and of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, so that one half may be chosen every second year. Thereafter, Senators shall serve for the term of four years.

1 Like