The current President of the United States is 74 years old. No one among his detractors—I am one—thinks his age is the problem. And while some wonder if President-elect Biden, age 78, is quite the same man he once was, Democrats who voted for him in the primaries simply believed that he was the best person for the job, despite his age, and voted to give him the Democrat nomination. This, notwithstanding there being 29 major candidates, 27 of them younger than Biden. The most important and taxing job in the world, voted into office by the American public—a position that will have been held by back-to-back septuagenarians (and in Biden’s case at the end of his term, older).

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There’s no question that younger judges typically, but not always, have some skill sets that older judges may not. Indeed, some of my law school students have wondered aloud about judges who openly admit in a class I teach that they often rely on their clerks for “wisdom” when it comes to the Internet world. And what exactly is wrong with reaching out to staffers for assistance and insight they may not have on their own? Don’t all judges of whatever age look for assistance from their clerks? Isn’t that the whole point of the clerking protocol?

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