During the general election in November, Wyoming voters will have the opportunity to amend the state Constitution to increase the mandatory retirement age for district and Supreme Court judges.

The proposed amendment would increase the retirement age from 70 to 75.

During a March 23 Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce lunch, state Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, said there were numerous advantages to the proposed changes, and said he was hopeful voters would support it.

“I just think it’s time we do that,” Crago said. “We have a lot of good judges that are forced to retire at 70. They are not ready for retirement, nor should they be. They’re still doing a great job for our state. It will actually be a money saver because we won’t be putting them on a pension plan as early … I’m hopeful we’re able to get that passed on the ballot and raise that for our judges, because it has been much needed for a while.”

The amendment was added to the general election ballot following the successful passage of House Joint Resolution 1 during the 2022 Budget Session of the Wyoming Legislature. In Wyoming, a proposed constitutional amendment must receive a two-thirds vote from each chamber to be added to the ballot. The measure was approved 54-5-1 in the House and 20-10 in the Senate. Among Park County’s delegation, Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis, and Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, opposed the resolution, with the other local representatives and senators supporting it.

Currently, 31 states have set mandatory retirement ages for judges. Seventeen of those states, including Wyoming, currently have a retirement age of 70, while eight have a mandatory retirement age of 75. In the federal judicial system, there is no mandatory retirement age for judges.

Within the next decade, eight of the state’s district and Supreme Court justices are expected to reach the retirement age and be forced to retire, Crago said. 

“If just those eight were able to serve an extra five years, the retirement system benefits by a gain of nearly $4 million, which is a huge savings to the taxpayers, and that will only grow and grow and grow as more judges are able to serve that long,” Crago said during first reading of the joint resolution in the House.

The forced retirement of judges continues to be a topic of conversation in Wyoming, especially following the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Michael Davis, who retired Jan. 16 upon turning 70. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon appointed Judge John Fenn, of Sheridan’s Fourth Judicial District Court, to Davis’ Supreme Court seat.

“He [Davis] had probably a lot of substantial service and time ahead of him that he could have served the state,” Rep. Ember Oakley, R-Riverton, said during first reading of the joint resolution in the House. “In this day and age, there are still many people who have a lot of service and are very sharp at the age of 70.”

“With that hard stop at 70, we’ve lost a lot of good judges as a result of that,” Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that the state would lose that talent and that skill and that commitment to the judicial branch of the state of Wyoming simply because they reached that age of 70.”

There are currently measures in place to remove judges from their seats if they are under the mandatory retirement age but not performing their duties, Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, noted. 

The Wyoming Constitution says any judicial officer can be removed “for conduct that constitutes willful misconduct in office, or for a willful and persistent failure to perform the duties of the office, or for habitual intemperance, or for conduct … that brings the judicial office into disrepute, or for a violation of the code of judicial conduct.”

In addition, when judges are up for a retention vote, voters have the ability to remove them from their seats regardless of whether or not they have reached the retirement age. Supreme Court justices currently serve eight-year terms, while district court judges serve six-year terms.