Wichita, Kansas: In a courtroom in Wichita, the day begins much as it has for the past 49 years: Court is in session, US District Judge Wesley Brown presiding. But what happens next is no longer routine — it's a testament to one man's sheer determination.
As lawyers and litigants wait in respectful silence, Brown, who is 103, carefully steers his power wheelchair behind the bench, his stooped frame almost disappearing behind its wooden bulk.
He adjusts under his nose the plastic tubes from the oxygen tank lying next to the day's case documents. Then his voice rings out loud and firm to his law clerk, "Call your case."
Brown is the oldest working federal judge in the nation, one of four appointees by President Kennedy still on the bench. Federal judgeships are lifetime appointments, and no one has taken that term more seriously than Brown.
In a profession where advanced age isn't unusual, Brown has left legal colleagues awestruck by his stamina and devotion to work. His service also epitomises how the federal court system keeps working even as litigation steadily increases, new judgeships remain rare, and judicial openings go unfilled for months or years.
Of the 1,294 sitting federal judges, Brown is one of 516 on "senior status," a form of semi-retirement that allows a judge to collect his salary but work at a reduced case level if he chooses. They handle almost a quarter of federal district trials.
And no one alive has logged more service than Brown, who took senior status in 1979 but still worked fulltime until recently. In March, he stopped taking new criminal cases and lightened his case load a bit. He still takes his full share of the new civil cases.
Reason for living
"I do it to be a public service," Brown said. "You got to have a reason to live."
Brown is six years older than the next oldest sitting federal judge. At least eight other federal judges are in their 90s, according to a federal court database.
He began his career in private practice in Hutchinson in 1933 and was appointed US district judge in 1962. He has outlived two wives and only moved into an assisted living centre four years ago.
