Elderly justices urged to retire

By Kimberly Atkins The Daily Record Newswire Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has twice battled cancer and has since been the subject of speculative whispers regarding whether and when she would step down from the Supreme Court bench, told USA Today that she feels fine and isn't going anywhere. Ginsburg said she received a clean bill of health after her most recent annual checkup. Ginsburg, 78, has shot down retirement rumors before, saying that she'd like to stay on the bench until she is at least 82 - the age at which Justice Louis Brandeis retired from the Court in 1939. But as the next presidential election looms just one year away, speculation over Ginsburg's future at the Court and implication of a possible vacancy next term have some left-leaning political commentators openly urging Ginsburg to step down now. In April, Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy wrote that Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer should consider hanging up their robes so that President Barack Obama gets two more Supreme Court appointments before his first term ends. ''If Obama loses, they will have contributed to a disaster,'' Kennedy wrote in a piece on The New Republic's website. Published: Thu, Nov 10, 2011