Judges: Jurist Before the Bar

He looks like a casting director's choice for the job—plump, bald, ruddy, even a little belligerent. At 70, age has not withered his stern skills nor staled his colorful style. But now, after 23 years on the bench, New York State Supreme Court Justice Samuel Simon Leibowitz finds himself before the bar as a defendant, his very qualifications to serve the law subject to review by a panel of his peers.

Having reached the mandatory retirement age, Judge Leibowitz applied for an extension of his term. By tradition, approval should have been...