Smells Like...Old People

Monday, March 21, 2005

Looking frail, his voice clear but slightly hoarse, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist returned to the bench Monday for the first time since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer last October.

Rehnquist, 80, joined his eight fellow justices in emerging from behind a curtain, as is the customary practice, to open the court's latest two-week series of arguments.

He took one break, leaving his chair for a few minutes during the first argument, as has been Rehnquist's custom in previous arguments, to stretch his back. At the conclusion he struggled momentarily to get out of his chair. Justice John Paul Stevens, who at 84 is the court's oldest member, assisted Rehnquist to a nearby railing.
A man vested with the greatest legal power in the world needs help getting out of his chair from...a fellow justice four years his senior!

You know, the Constitution says nothing about justices being allowed to serve for life. Rather, federal judges may sit on the bench for as long as they display "good behavior."

Can you say your father or grandfather in his mid-eighties has the ability to show up for work everyday, let alone have the capacity to decide legal matters affecting the entire nation?

I want to know what these guys are putting in their coffee.

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