Gondelman v. Commonwealth

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

Article Y, section 16(b) of the Pennsylvania Constitution provides in part that “Justices, judges and justices of the peace shall be retired upon attaining the age of seventy years.” Pa. Const, art. V, § 16(b).1 The instant appeals present us with a question which, at first glance, seems rhetorical: whether the foregoing provision in our state constitution is itself constitutional.

This matter began with an original action brought by Harold Gondelman in the Commonwealth Court, seeking a judicial declaration that the mandatory-retirement provision in Article V, section…