Biden unveils a proposal to establish term limits for the Supreme Court I think some change is needed but it should be broader than just the SCOTUS. I don't like term limits for judges but I think an age limit would be appropriate. However, the age limit should apply to all 3 branches of the government. President and by extension the Vice-President, Senate and the House, as well as the SCOTUS should have an defined retirement age. Let's use 75 years old as an example. You are not eligible to run for election or re-election after your 75th birthday and if you are a federal judge you retire at the end of the term when you hit your 75th birthday. What say you?
Will never pass. Will need both houses, the president, and 38 states to ratify it. I seriously doubt we will see another constitutional amendment without the parties drastically changing. Its a ploy to get the left base energized based on the rulings the last few years. If there were 7 Liberal justices up there, there would be crickets from the WH.
Lame Duck... trying to stir the pot before elections. Now, if he wanted term limits on the congress instead, he might have a winner.
I used to be in favor of term limits but seeing people voted out of office that were in there a long time caused me to rethink that position. I think an age limit would be better than term limits.
Would the imposition of time limits on SCOTUS not require a constitutional amendment? Also, from the article: "Biden is calling for doing away with lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which the sitting president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in service on the court. He argues term limits would help ensure that court membership changes with some regularity and adds a measure of predictability to the nomination process." How would this work if the party in control of the Senate refused to have a vote on nominees put up by the President? Could this result in periods of vacancies?
I think any change limiting the time a SCOTUS judge could serve would need a constitutional amendment.
How is it one sided? Conservatives went 40 years with a more liberal court than they wanted. No guarantee we won't see Thomas and Alito dead under a two term Harris and 40 more years of liberal courts.
Nobody envisioned the politicalization of the judiciary. Term limits are absolutely needed, amongst other reforms in how judges are selected to the bench. We need three branches of government to check and balance powers. When the judiciary becomes an arm of the executive branch, our system fails. And is there anyone that really opposes limits on executive immunity? Forget Trump — Don’t we all agree that under our system, nobody is above the law?
But doesn't term limits on SCOTUS judges make them more political? How long should the term be, 5, 10, 25 years?
12 is my stab at it. If the court is going to be political it might as well reflect the current politics of voters and not those of people who were around under Reagan.
Why would it make them more political? They serve their very lengthy term under any standard, and move on. Picking a number out of thin air, I think 15 years is a very long, sufficient, career-like term. That’ll make sure we always have experienced jurists, as well as “new blood”.
Just for info, I googled average length of service for the SCOTUS and got this: As of June 2022, there have been 116 Justices. What is the average length of a Justice's tenure? The average number of years that Justices have served is 16.
I don't know about that, because we all age differently, and an age limit would make us all nothing more than a statistical number for the government to abuse. Some people are in far better health at an advanced age, while others are not so fortunate. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. A mental fitness test would be a better way to go, but I'm not sure if that would be fair in this new politically charged world we live in. Term limits seem like the way to go. Term limits are necessary for many reasons, not the least of which because some Senators, like Chuck Schumer, get too embedded with certain deep state types like the Military Industrial Complex, or intel apparatus, and that gives them FAR TOO MUCH POWER in the Senate. They think they're above the law, and they feel no compunction about threatening a duly elected president... with impunity.
It's a BS Political move. If he was serious about it then there would be limits for Congress as well. We all know that will never happen.