Retired California Judges Can’t Force Recusal in Age Bias Suit

Retired California judges Friday unsuccessfully urged one of their own to disqualify himself and to keep alive their lawsuit alleging that the amount of time they were allowed work on temporary assignments to the bench discriminated based on age.

It’s a judicial family fight with eight retired judges suing the California Judicial Council over the now-discontinued 1,320-day lifetime limit on jurists sitting on the bench hearing cases through the Temporary Assigned Judges Program. The state program allows retired judges to be appointed to cover vacancies.

A state appeals court reversed an earlier trial court’s dismissal of the retired judges’ ...