Dianne Feinstein’s last great act of public service to Californians is simple: resign | Opinion

It’s hard for me to write this about someone who has always treated me with great kindness, but alas: It is time for Dianne Feinstein to retire. She has had an exemplary career in public service but now she is hurting the country by continuing to hold a seat when her health has prevented her from doing her job for months.

I have had the pleasure of working with Sen. Feinstein since she was elected to the Senate in 1992 and though I did not always agree with her, I always enormously admired her.

However, she has not been in the Senate since February as she recovers from shingles. Though her office announced Tuesday that she would return to Washington D. C. it’s still not immediately clear when she would resum her work as a voting member of the U.S. Senate.

She serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and her absence has made advancing judges to the full Senate much more difficult. Her absence makes passage of an extension of the debt ceiling more difficult, with a catastrophic default now looming in mere weeks.

Her difficulties in performing the job did not start in February, and they are not limited to just this illness. There have been major newspaper stories interviewing staffers describing her declining mental health and inability to do her job. I observed this in our last conversation, and I have heard it from those who work for her and have observed her in the Senate.

I do not underestimate how difficult it is to let go of a position of prestige and power after over 30 years. But for a person who has dedicated her career to public service, I hope she will recognize that the greatest service now would be to resign and let Gov. Gavin Newsom name someone to fill her seat until the 2024 election. California needs a second Senator, and the Senate needs all of its members.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called critics who call for Feinstein’s resignation sexist, declaring: “I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way.” That is a fair point in the sense that there are plenty of examples of male Senators who remained after they were no longer able to do the job, such as Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd.

But Pelosi’s statement misses the point in that it fails to address the crucial question: Can Feinstein still do her job? If not — and it seems clear that she cannot — she must resign.

The problem, however, is that we lack a mechanism for dealing with those who hold office but who are no longer are able to do the job and won’t let go. I have seen it with federal judges who have life tenure and remain on the bench long after they are able to perform competently. Several years ago, I argued a case in the Ninth Circuit before a once eminent judge, then in his 90s, who clearly had no idea what was going on.

I don’t want to minimize how difficult it is to tell someone that it’s time to leave. In my 15 years as dean of a law school, I have had to do this with colleagues. It is excruciating, and I try to do it in a way that respects the dignity and privacy of the professor. Sometimes it requires enlisting family members to help. There’s no doubt that it is easier to do nothing, but that would be unfair to our students.

Likewise, it is the duty of Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senators to plainly convey the message to Feinstein that it is time to step down. It is the responsibility of those who know her and that she respects to ask her to do a final act of great public service for California and the country: resign.