Extreme Public Service
Approaching his 50th year on the bench, a 103-year-old federal judge announced that he would lighten his case load this week.
U.S. District judge Wesley Brown was appointed to the Kansas District Court in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy, and is the longest serving judge on that court. He turns 104 on June 22.
The judge’s law clerk, Michael Lahey, told the AP Thursday that Brown is removing himself from the draw for assignment of new criminal cases.
Some of his existing cases are being reassigned to other judges because the lengthy plea hearings “take a lot of oxygen” from Brown, who uses oxygen as he presides from the bench, Lahey told the AP.
Congress honored and commended Brown on his 100th birthday in 2007.