It is time for a shift from appointed to elected federal judges, and to get rid of the requirement that judges should be attorneys

Here is the list of currently serving judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Only 8 out of 19 judges are not eligible for a full pension under the so-called Rule 80 (if the age of the judge plus years of the bench equal 80, the judge is entitled to a pension equal to the judge's full salary on retirement).

6 out of 19 judges have "senior status".

9 out 19 judges are over the age of 70, and these judges are the ones who are predominantly assigned to civil rights appeals, and decide them predominantly through the non-precedential "fast and sloppy track", by "summary orders".

The youngest judge of the court is 50.

The next youngest judge is 56.

The next "youngest" 8 judges are 60 to 67.

To me, it is a depressing picture.

It appears that, with all the abundance and even overproduction of lawyers in this country, and with all the abundance of bright and capable attorneys in this countries, in the entire circuit there is no young blood to be able to serve on appellate court, and people's lives absolutely have to be decided by people who may be mentally, physically and by their energy levels, unable to withstand the vigor required of a judge on the bench.

One other issue of big concern is that judges of 70+ and especially 80+ years of age have spent their formative years when racial and gender discrimination was still the norm and when the civil rights movement was only prepared for the breakthroughs of the 60s.

It is scary enough that such people (most of them with a prosecutorial background and a prosecutorial way of thinking) were on the bench for as long as they were on the bench.  Everybody knows that, with age, the bad character traits become ingrained in people and become stronger.

The even scarier part is that specifically the old judges, 75 to 80 years of age, are resolved to decide civil rights appeals in the 2nd Circuit, and they reduce decisions of such cases from the "as of right" de novo review required for such appeals, to a "certiorari" review and unthinking rubber-stamping of whatever the lower court says.  Federal court statistics show that this way 85% of federal appeals and an even higher number of civil rights appeals are decided.

Thus, a question is raised - is there even a point of filing a civil rights lawsuit and a civil rights appeal if judges in federal courts (mostly old judges with a prosecutorial background and mentality) decide from the time such lawsuits are filed that they are "not worthy" of review - and act accordingly?

Moses walked his people around the desert for 40 years to let those born in slavery die out.

Maybe, it is time to replace the old generation of judges with the new blood - and change the appointment system with elections system, to prevent political appointees from getting to the bench to serve political agenda of the president-in-office, the way it was happening until now.

And - there should not be a requirement that the new elected jurist should necessarily be lawyers whose licenses are in the hands of the judiciary, and thus the lawyers are trained to check their independent minds at the door to the legal profession.

The judiciary needs a true young and independent blood.

It is time for judicial reform.

I would also like to point out that you might have a difficulty finding official judicial biographies on the website of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, they are pretty well hidden in the depths of the website, which I consider an appearance of impropriety.

People have a right to know who is judging them and do not have to engage in "Easter egg-hunt" through the court's website to get that information.

At this time, to get to judicial biographies, you need to do the following:

1. Go to the official website of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit (the usual procedure);
2. Go to "about the court" (the usual procedure); and then the "unusual procedure starts:
3. Hit the "About the Court";
4. IGNORE the drop-down list and
5. Hit AGAIN "About the court" while the drop-down list is still open - and this page will open;
6. Go to the "History" section;
7. Find the sentence "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has been home to many notable jurists, some of whom have served as Chief Judge of the court";
8. Hit the link on "notable jurists".

In my opinion, it does not do the court much credit to hide judicial biographies on the website in such a way that one needs to engage in tricks to find them.

To allow the public to find judicial biographies of the currently serving judges easier, I made this table (below) and interlinked in it the names of judges.

You can read the biography of each currently serving judge of this court by clicking his or her name.

No.	Name of Judge	Date of Birth	Age	Appointed to federal courts and name of president	Years on the bench	Appointed to appellate court and name of president	Years on appellate federal bench	Rule 80 full salary eligible on retirement?	Senior status? Y/N
1	Walker, John Mercer Jr.	1940	75	1985, Ronald Reagan	30	1989, George H.W. Bush	26	Yes	Yes, 2006
2	Jacobs, Dennis G., Former chief judge 2006-2013	1944	71	1992, George H.W. Bush	23	1992, George H.W. Bush	23	Yes	No
3	Leval, Pierre Nelson	1936	79	1977, Jimmy Carter	38	1993, William Clinton	22	Yes	Yes, 2002
4	Calabresi, Guido	1932	83			1994, William Clinton	21	Yes	Yes, 2009
5	Cabranes, Jose Alberto	1940	75	1979, Jimmy Carter	35	1994, William Clinton	21	Yes	No
6	Pooler, Rosemary S.	1938	77	1994, William Clinton	21	1997, William Clinton	18	Yes	No
7	Straub, Chester J.	1937	78			1998, William Clinton	17	Yes	Yes, 2008
8	Sack, Robert David	1939	76			1997, William Clinton	18	Yes	Yes, 2009
9	Katzmann, Robert A., Chief judge 2013- present	1953	62			1999, William Clinton	16	No	No
10	Parker, Barrington Daniels Jr.	1944	71			2001, George W. Bush	14	Yes	Yes, 2009
11	Raggi, Reena	1951	64	1987, Ronald Reagan	28	2002, George W. Bush	13	Yes	No
12	Wesley, Richard C.	1949	66			2003, George W. Bush	12	No	No
13	Hall, Peter W.	1948	67			2003, George W. Bush	12	No	No
14	Livingston, Debra Ann	1959	56			2007, George W. Bush	8	No	No
15	Lynch, Gerard E.	1951	64	2000, William Clinton	15	2009, Barack Obama	6	No	No
16	Chin, Denny	1954	61	1994, William Clinton	21	2009, Barack Obama	6	Yes	No
17	Lohier, Raymond Joseph Jr.	1965	50			2010, Barack Obama	5	No	No
18	Carney, Susan Laura	1951	64			2011, Barack Obama	4	No	No
19	Droney, Christopher Fitzgerald	1954	61	1997, William Clinton	17	2011	4	No	No