Fix the Court executive director Gabe Roth has an essay on implementing Supreme Court term limits in The Fulcrum, a news organization “focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions plaguing American democracy.”
The piece comes on the heels of heath news from Chief Justice Roberts, who last month fell down and hit his head badly enough that he required an overnight hospital stay, and Justice Ginsburg, who’s had yet another bout with cancer.
Here’s the key section:
Limiting justices’ terms would not magically end the hyperpartisanship in Washington today. But it would greatly reduce the chance and gamesmanship that currently characterize the process of confirming justices. Not happy with a recently confirmed justice? No problem. The next opportunity to shape the court is coming in 24 months.
Such regularity would reduce the temperature of today’s Senate confirmation process, promote fair-mindedness and increase the chances the future justices are seasoned jurists in their 50s or 60s — and not firebrands in their 40s replacing jurists in their 90s, which is what the current system encourages. […]
Serve 18 years on the Supreme Court, then rotate to a lower court or retire outright, and return to the high court if needed. That way fairness, not a cabal of the infirm, will reign supreme.
Read the op-ed here.