Judges Can't Rule After They Die, Supreme Court Says

Once judges die, they lose the power to rule, the nation’s highest federal court has decided.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a federal appeals court judge who died before a decision he voted on was issued can’t have his vote counted.

Stephen Reinhardt, one of the most liberal federal judges in the country, died at age 87 on March 28, 2018. Eleven days later the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the most liberal federal appeals court in the country, issued a decision on a case setting new precedent on a 6-5 vote, counting Reinhardt’s vote and the opinion he wrote before his death.

The appeals court justified its action with a footnote: “Prior to his death, Judge Reinhardt fully participated in this case and authored this opinion. The majority opinion and all concurrences were final, and voting was completed by the en banc court prior to his death.”

The federal Supreme Court on Monday said no.

“Because Judge Reinhardt was no longer a judge at the time when the en banc decision in this case was filed, the Ninth Circuit erred in counting him as a member of the majority. That practice effectively allowed a deceased judge to exercise the judicial power of the United States after his death. But federal judges are appointed for life, not for eternity,” the U.S. Supreme Court said.

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