Judge Ricard Posner Announces Retirement

Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced his retirement Friday afternoon, affording President Donald Trump the opportunity to replace a legal titan on the Chicago-based federal appeals court.

Posner is one of the most consequential legal figures of recent times, exerting significant influence on the practice and study of law from his perches on the Seventh Circuit and the University of Chicago Law School faculty. Something of an intellectual gadfly, he has written 50 books, 500 academic articles, and several thousand legal opinions on a wide range of subjects, a prodigious output surpassing even Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes, Posner’s hero and perhaps the most lettered Supreme Court justice of his time. And Posner is almost certainly the most read jurist of recent decades: The Journal of Legal Studies says he was the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century.

Posner subscribes to a method of judging called “pragmatism,” which seeks to balance the equities of each case and conform judicial rulings to the social, political, and economic arrangements of the times. He touted his commitment to pragmatism in announcing his retirement.

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