SHOULD SUPREME COURT JUSTICES HAVE TERM LIMITS?
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The case for
The 18-year term proposal developed by legal scholars would give each four-year presidential term two predictable appointments. This prevents any single administration from permanently reshaping the Court due to the luck of when justices retire or die, and it eliminates the strategic retirement...
Posted by jconnor
Germany, the UK, Canada, France, and every other peer democracy rotate their highest court judges. None has seen judicial independence erode as a result. The American lifetime-tenure model is the global outlier. Its defenders cite tradition, but tradition is not the same as wisdom — and this...
Posted by jconnor
Lifetime tenure was designed when life expectancy was 40 years and justices served 10 to 15 years on average. Today, justices routinely serve 30+ years. Strategic retirement and the lottery of presidential timing have turned each confirmation into a zero-sum political war. Term limits would...
Posted by jconnor
The case against
The Constitution grants federal judges life tenure precisely to insulate them from political pressure. A justice who knows they will return to private life in 18 years has more incentive to please future employers or their appointing party. Lifetime tenure is the structural price of genuine...
Posted by jconnor
Term limits require a constitutional amendment: two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of states. This has not been achieved on any politically divisive question in modern American history. The reform is practically unattainable, which means the debate is primarily about delegitimizing the...
Posted by jconnor
The recent unpopularity of the Court reflects disagreement with specific decisions, not with the institution's design. Changing structural rules to produce different outcomes is court-packing by another name. It sets a precedent that constitutional structures are malleable whenever one side...
Posted by jconnor
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What is a strong argument for "Should Supreme Court Justices Have Term Limits?"?
The 18-year term proposal developed by legal scholars would give each four-year presidential term two predictable appointments. This prevents any single administration from permanently reshaping the Court due to the luck of when justices retire or die, and it eliminates the strategic retirement... (Argued by jconnor on SuperDebate.)
What is a strong argument against "Should Supreme Court Justices Have Term Limits?"?
The Constitution grants federal judges life tenure precisely to insulate them from political pressure. A justice who knows they will return to private life in 18 years has more incentive to please future employers or their appointing party. Lifetime tenure is the structural price of genuine... (Argued by jconnor on SuperDebate.)
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