Deaths of United States federal judges in active service have profound political and procedural effects.
While Article Three of the United States Constitution provides that "Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour", thereby securing lifetime appointments, in practice a substantial majority of federal judges have resigned, retired, or otherwise left active service prior to their death.
79, Alexander Hamilton, advocating for lifetime judicial appointments rather than a set retirement age, suggested that the people should "consider how few there are who outlive the season of intellectual vigor, and how improbable it is that any considerable portion of the bench, whether more or less numerous, should be in such a situation at the same time".
However, as the epidemiological transition took root, and as life expectancy in the United States lengthened, early death provided a dwindling solution to age-related declined in mental capacity.
Instead, the judicial system had to place greater reliance on the discretion of federal judges to retire at an appropriate point in their careers".
Unlike planned retirements, deaths of judges can disrupt these active cases, necessitating redistribution of the court's docket to accommodate the handling of previously scheduled proceedings.
[14] The following are lists of United States Article Three federal judges who died while in active service from 1789 to the present day.
Although this is the largest number of judges to die over such a period of time, it is the lowest percentage, due to substantial expansions of the judiciary branch.