Editorial: Eighteen (years) is enough: Limit the terms of Supreme Court justices (via latimesopinion)
Court-packing is a terrible idea. And if a Democratic Congress expanded the Supreme Court to influence its rulings, what would prevent a future Republican Congress and president from following suit?
have joined in proposing that justices — who now serve for life unless they choose to retire — be appointed instead to fixed terms. The most popular proposal would provide for an 18-year term.Fixed terms would have several advantages. They would prevent justices from serving past their prime or clinging to their positions in an attempt to ensure that a president they trust will appoint their successors. Fixed terms also would expand the pool of potential nominees to include seasoned lawyers.
A proposal for 18-year terms favored by the reform group Fix the Court would allow a president to make two Supreme Court nominations during a four-year term. Most recent presidents have appointed at least two justices, but the frequency of appointments has varied. For example, Richard Nixon appointed four justices in his first term; Jimmy Carter didn’t get the chance to appoint any.
Congress arguably has the power to force the shift to fixed terms. The Constitution says that federal judges “shall hold their offices during,” a provision generally interpreted as conferring life tenure. But Congress wouldn’t necessarily violate that provision if it passed a statute barring justices from spending more than 18 years of their life tenure on the Supreme Court, reassigning them after that to lower courts — where retired Supreme Court justices have already heard cases on occasion.
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