Should Members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices Be Forced to Retire at a Certain Age? 'Should Be 65, but I'll Take Anything I Can Get'

Members of Congress can continue seeking reelection indefinitely, while Supreme Court justices receive lifetime appointments and may serve until they retire, resign, die or are removed.

A recent Reddit discussion asked whether all three groups should face mandatory retirement at 75, and thousands of people thought even that was too generous.

"Should be 65, but I'll take anything I can get," the most popular comment read. That response captured the overall mood: Most participants favored an age limit, but many wanted it set at 65, 67 or 70.

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Making Decisions They May Never Live With

One major concern was that officials in their 70s and 80s create policies whose consequences will continue long after they're gone.

"You can make a decision at 80 that someone who's 20 will still be dealing with at 40," one person wrote. Another questioned why the Constitution imposes minimum ages for elected federal offices because younger adults supposedly lack experience, while placing no upper limit on people who may never experience the long-term effects of their decisions.

Others argued that older officials may struggle to keep up with rapidly changing technology. "We have 80-year-olds voting on AI regulations and internet privacy when they literally don't understand how Wi-Fi works or how to switch the input on their TV," one person wrote. Another questioned how judges can rule on privacy and cutting-edge technology when they may have little understanding of the subjects involved.

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People also compared politicians with workers in other high-responsibility professions. Commercial airline pilots face mandatory retirement at 65, while some federal law enforcement officers and military leaders must leave their positions earlier.

"Pilots have mandatory retirement but the people in charge of the whole country don't," one person wrote.

Of course, most Americans cannot simply vote themselves into a job with no fixed retirement date. Building enough savings to leave work takes years of planning and investing. Advanta IRA helps you take more control through self-directed IRAs that can hold alternative assets such as real estate and cryptocurrency. The company has more than $4 billion in assets under custody and over 25 years of experience. You receive a dedicated account manager for the lifetime of your account, along with free webinars, podcasts, articles, guides and other educational resources about self-directed retirement investing. Take control of your retirement with a Self-Directed IRA from Advanta IRA.

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Age Is Not the Same as Ability

Not everyone supported a mandatory cutoff. Opponents argued that some people remain mentally sharp in their 80s, while some younger politicians are poorly informed, out of touch or simply bad at their jobs.

One commenter proposed independent medical and cognitive examinations, with results relevant to the job released publicly. "There are some 80-year-olds that are fit for the job, and some 60-year-olds that aren't," the person wrote, saying that voters should ultimately decide.

The discussion offered no agreement on the exact solution. Still, the dominant message was that many Americans are uncomfortable with officials holding enormous power for life, especially when ordinary workers are expected to step aside decades earlier.

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