Wichita ? A 103-year-old federal judge still serving on the bench in Kansas is lightening his case load.

The law clerk for U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown confirmed Thursday that the judge is removing himself from the draw for assignment of new criminal cases. Thursday’s docket also showed several of his existing cases being reassigned to other judges.

His law clerk, Michael Lahey, told The Associated Press that Brown will continue to preside over fewer of his remaining criminal and civil cases.

The judge uses oxygen as he presides from the bench, and Lahey says the lengthy plea hearings “take a lot of oxygen” from him.

Brown was appointed to the federal bench by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

He turns 104 in June.