Strategic Retirements of Elected and Appointed Justices: A Hazard Model Approach

Strategic accounts of judges usually consider various aspects of dispensation of cases. We look beyond these traditional areas of study in judicial politics to examine whether state supreme court justices render strategic retirement decisions. More specifically, we posit a dual theory of strategic retirements conditioned upon the institutional arrangements in which elected and appointed justices make retirement decisions. Employing an event history framework that analyzes the duration of state supreme court justices’ tenure and reason for departing the bench in the several selection and retention systems from 1980 to 2005, we show that elected and appointed justices engage in strategic retirement behavior but do so as a function of the diverse environments in which they operate. Our study implicates a number of theoretical, empirical, and normative issues regarding the selection and retention of state supreme court justices.