Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges.
[1] As long as senior judges carry at least a 25 percent caseload or meet other criteria for activity, they remain entitled to maintain a staffed office and chambers, including a secretary and their normal complement of law clerks, and they continue to receive annual cost-of-living increases.
The United States Code does not refer to senior status in its body text, although the title of 28 U.S.C.
A justice of the Supreme Court who (after meeting the age and length of service requirements prescribed in 28 U.S.C.
This is referred to as an assignment by designation, and requires that a certification of necessity be issued by the appropriate supervisor of the court.
That same year, Willis Van Devanter became the first Supreme Court justice to exercise the option.
Since this option became available to Supreme Court justices, only ten have died while still in active service, the most recent being Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, 2020.
In 1984, the requirements were further revised to what is often called the "Rule of 80": once a judge or justice reached age 65, if the sum of years of age and years of service on the federal bench is eighty or more, the judge is entitled to senior status.
In a 2007 article in the Cornell Law Review, David Stras and Ryan Scott suggested that senior status may be unconstitutional.