Court packing could signal a new era of non-partisanship in the Supreme Court. } He proposed that, after a period of transition from the current system, justices be limited to 18-year terms so that a new member would be nominated in each odd year, giving presidents 2 nominees for each 4-year executive term. We understand that product offers and rates from third-party sites may change, and while we make every effort to keep our content updated, the figures mentioned on our site may differ from actual numbers. ], ProCon.org, "US Supreme Court Packing Top 2 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "US Supreme Court Packing Top 2 Pros and Cons. [21]. Court packing could signal a new era of non Ultimately, the number of Supreme Court justices is arbitrary, easily revised by Congress, and ripe for change. This model has been supported as a good government reform by notable progressives and conservatives alike.13 Among those who support such term limits, there are two general points of debate. Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer have served on the bench for 28, 26, and 25 years, respectively. var onSuccessSubmitenSubscribeFooter = function() { Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 on September 18th of 2020. Managing Editor Netflixs Cuties: Could There be Constitutional Implications. 5. Why or why not? [4] The Act would only allow presidents to pick two justices during a four-year term to limit political clashes over replacements.[5]. The U.S. Constitution doesnt specifically grant Supreme Court justices a lifetime appointment. However, the Constitution was ratified in 1787 when the average life expectancy for a white male in the US was about 38 years. [6] Although there is public support for term limits, enacting them is more complicated. allow President Joe Biden to nominate his successor, death of 87-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, C.M. var subscribe = document.getElementById('enSubscribeFooter'); [11] CDC, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Mar. This would make certain that each presidential term would bring two new justiceshelping to ensure the court reflects the general public.12 Once at the end of their term, justices would have the option to continue to work as fully compensated federal judges in senior status, as all currently retired Supreme Court justices have elected to do. This state of affairs is untenable; policymakers must address it by enacting legislation to create term limits for justices. ! An 18-year nonrenewable limit is overwhelmingly the most common proposal, although Chief Justice Roberts once expressed support for a 15-year term.10 Justice Breyer has argued that an 18-year term period would give justices enough time to fully learn the job and develop jurisprudencea position bolstered by the fact that many justices have voluntarily retired after a similar period of service on the court.11 Moreover, under advocacy organization Fix the Courts bipartisan model, the 18-year term would be staggered so that a vacancy would open every two years. 
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 26, 2020 with a 52-48 vote to replace Justice Ginsburg, eight days before the 2020 election. [5] [7], The court packing debate was reinvigorated in 2019 with the appointment of conservative Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh by President Trump after liberal-leaning swing vote Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in July 2018. For example, when Chief Justice Earl Warrena noted progressiveretired after 15 years on the Supreme Court, he originally submitted his resignation to then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to avoid having a potential Republican president choose his replacement.8 More recently, however, these problems have been so exacerbated as to weaken the legitimacy of the court itself, culminating in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells (R-KY) move to steal a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider a nominee from then-President Barack Obama. https://reason.com/2020/09/18/justices-who-died-in-ofice/, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-termlimits/democrats-prepare-bill-limiting-u-s-supreme-court-justice-terms-to-18-years-idUSKCN26F3L3?utm_source=reddit.com, https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/408781-americans-tend-to-be-in-favor-of-term-limits-for-most, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/24/supreme-court-reform-ideas-term-limits-rbg-age-packing-421203, https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/09/house-democrats-to-introduce-new-bill-for-supreme-court-term-limits/, https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1987-06-28-2569915-story.html#:~:text=Life%20expectancy%20in%20the%20America,years%20for%20a%20white%20male, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm, https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/08/experts-tout-proposals-for-supreme-court-term-limits/, https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm, https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-amy-coney-barrett-trump-supreme-court-nomination-ginsburg-20200925-sro7jixc55gk7e5idsqokxuxg4-story.html, https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now, Failure to Accommodate Divergent Views: The Supreme Court on the ACA, Contraception, and Religion. The President nominates potential justices to the Supreme Court, and the Senate must then approve the nominees. Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh, one of Kennedys former clerks, to replace him. U.S. Senate, Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment, available at, Sam Berger, Conservative Court Packing, Center for American Progress, April 3, 2019, available at, Fix the Court, Term Limits, available at, Justice Breyer rejects Democratic plan to pack Supreme Court: Nine seats is fine,, Fix the Court, Term Limits; Erwin Chemerinsky, Supreme Court needs term limits, T, Fix the Court, Dozens of Legal Scholars Demand Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices, July 8, 2019, available at, Kermit Roosevelt and Ruth-Helen Vassilas, Supreme Court justices should have term limits, CNN, September 30, 2019, available at, Christopher Sundby and Suzanna Sherry, Term Limits and Turmoil: Roe v. Wades Whiplash,, Bernadette Meyler, Retaining Stare Decisis in June Medical Services v. Russo, Stanford Law School Legal Aggregate, June 30, 2020, available at, Pew Research Center, After Gonzales v. Carhart: The Future of Abortion Jurisprudence, June 14, 2007, available at, Judicial Conference of the United States, Judgeship Appointments by President, available at, Tyler Cooper, SCOTUS Term Limits and the Final Period Problem, Fix the Court, March 23, 2020, available at, Stephen B. Burbank, S. Jay Plager, Geogory Ablavsky, Leaving the Bench, 1970-2009: The Choices Federal Judges Make, What Influences Those Choices, and Their Consequences,, Burbank, Plager, and Ablavsky, Leaving the Bench, 19702009., Editorial Board, Court Without a Quorum,. While the US Constitution does not specify the number of Supreme Court justices, neither does it specify that justices must have law degrees or have served as judges. Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, progressive political organizers, argued, We absolutely have to address the right-wing imbalance of the current court right now [Sep. 19, 2020] Theres no way to rebalance the court without expanding it. [10], Ian Millhiser, JD, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Editor of Think Progress Justice, explains the danger of a partisan court: a rigidly partisan Supreme Court risks radicalizing the electorate against democracy itself and, thus, [t]he case for court-packing is clear, and the course of action is obvious, if the Supreme Court tries to rig elections so that only Republicans can win nationally. [1], A conservative court could ensure Republican domination by ruling on matters like voting rights, essentially disallowing voting by majority Democrat groups like black voters, with voter ID, felon voting, and other disenfranchising laws. At times, however, the judicial leanings of Court Justices prove They can develop long-term relationships with lower court justices, legal scholars, and advocates who specialize in their areas of expertise. It would also provide a more regular and greater degree of turnover among the judges. Regular upheavals in law have long been raised as a potential negative outcome to term limits. Second, the Act would not harm the Courts legitimacy. WebPros And Cons Of Supreme Court Justices Life Terms A Supreme Opportunity. The most obvious benefit of having a life term as a Supreme Court justice is that it allows for long-term, consistent judicial rulings. WebScore: 4.3/5 (69 votes) . But they would be limited to 18-year terms. Life tenure can turn supposedly independent judges into political players who attempt to time their departures to secure their preferred successors, as Justice Anthony Kennedy did in 2018. For example, major cases challenging abortion rights and the promise of Roe v. Wade are regularly brought before the court. As a result, the confirmation process for the highest court has become politically divisive, with extremely narrow votes and theatrics from the nominees themselves. Supreme Court selections have always been political in nature to a degree, and sitting justices themselves often contribute to this. Does the current method of waiting until a Justice retires or dies and allowing the current president to appoint a new Justice work? Webthe Supreme Court justices write the papers that tell the decision of a case Announcing decisions Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court must petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. [4] [5] [6], The contemporary debate has been heavily influenced by events following the Feb. 13, 2016, death of conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. It's a question many have about the U.S.'s highest courtand the rationale dates back to America's founding. This would defeat the reason for having lifetime tenure, which is the goal of shielding federal judges from outside pressure. That was a feature of the Reconstruction era. [20], Plus, the Supreme Court is fiercely independent, undercutting a simplistic view of its partisan leanings. [1] The US Constitution does not dictate the number of justices on the Supreme Court, but states only: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. Full retirement from the bench allows a judge to return to practice law and generally act without any constraint on earnings or profession; from 1970 to 2009, 80 former judges chose this path.21 In contrast, taking senior statuswhich requires some judicial service while the judge continues to be fully compensated along with certain tax advantagescomes with at least some ethics requirements in regard to limits on outside earnings.22 There are currently three former Supreme Court justices and 577 lower court judges currently in senior status. A third approach to interpreting the good behavior requirement in Article III Section 1 of the Constitution points out that it does not expressly grant life tenure to Supreme Court justices.[13] This means the requirement of having justices serve during good behavior could be met by a law allowing justices to continue their service on another federal court after they serve on the Supreme Court. Back in 1894, the Supreme Court was older not to mention whiter and all male. Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice, The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. Over the years Congress has passed various acts to change this number, fluctuating from a low of five to a high of ten. The pros and cons of a Supreme Court justice life term are manifold, and its important to consider them before making a The Act would help solve this imbalance by limiting president appointments to two per term, giving future Democratic presidents more opportunities to appoint justices than they have had so far. Supreme Court justices can serve as long as they are able, and often go down in history as some of the most influential judges in American history. Ultimately, the number of Supreme Court justices is arbitrary, easily revised by Congress, and ripe for change. Public support for judicial nominees also shows large differences between Democrats and Republicans. "US Supreme Court Packing Top 2 Pros and Cons." Life Tenure Is Too Long for Supreme Court Justices Allowing Supreme Court justices to serve for life is causing too many problems. Its a slippery slope that would [22] We should not break with over 150 years of historical precedent to play political games with the Supreme Court. As life expectancy continues to increase, it is likely that the younger justices will serve for at least that amount of time. [19] If the Court is not viewed as legitimate, the public is less likely to follow its opinions. [10] As of Sep. 22, 2020, with the death of Associate Justice Ginsburg, the court has five conservative justices and three liberal justices. The effort is frequently framed as a battle between an entrenched, reactionary Supreme Court, which overturned a slew of Roosevelts New Deal economic reforms, against a hubristic president willing to take the unprecedented step of asking Congress to appoint six new, and sympathetic, justices to the bench, according to Cicero Institute Senior Policy Advisor Judge Glock, PhD. Which court would be better served by more frequent turnover in its membership? [14] [15] As explained in Encyclopaedia Britannica, In 1807 a seventh justice was added, followed by an eighth and a ninth in 1837 and a tenth in 1863. For many, that may open the window for them to take on a new career after their term has ended. 3. Foreign courts have encountered few problems with term limits. However, it is also a substantial amount of time spent on the countrys highest court and would invite the great many prestigious opportunities allowable under senior status while providing for the comfortable lifestyle that current retired justices enjoy. The Act would balance the number of justices that each president can nominate, which would help the confirmation process become less partisan. First, there is the question of whether the reform could be achieved through statute. While these are indeed important considerations, neither objection outweighs the potential benefits of term limits. In this view, the Supreme Court would be better served by more frequent turnover in its membership. 17, 2017) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm; Kalvis Golde, Experts Tout Proposals for Supreme Court Term Limits, SCOTUSblog(Aug. 4, 2020) https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/08/experts-tout-proposals-for-supreme-court-term-limits/. His retirement would allow President Joe Biden to nominate his successor and give Democrats another liberal justice, if confirmed. If so, how? For example, the court once was unable to consider a case because it could not muster the needed quorum to do so as a result of too many justices having financial conflicts.24 While this brief does not aim to explore the merits of Supreme Court ethics reform proposals, the fact remains that the significant ethics concerns that already plague the court are unlikely to worsen with term limits in place. Web[23]. 18 years is still a long time, equal to three Senate terms. Democrats have appointed only 4 of the past 18 justices. Any new justice on the court will have an effect on how precedent is evaluated as well as how novel legal questions are decided. The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari. 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Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 26, 2020 with a 52-48 vote to replace Justice Ginsburg, eight days before the 2020 election. [5] [7], The court packing debate was reinvigorated in 2019 with the appointment of conservative Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh by President Trump after liberal-leaning swing vote Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in July 2018. For example, when Chief Justice Earl Warrena noted progressiveretired after 15 years on the Supreme Court, he originally submitted his resignation to then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to avoid having a potential Republican president choose his replacement.8 More recently, however, these problems have been so exacerbated as to weaken the legitimacy of the court itself, culminating in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells (R-KY) move to steal a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider a nominee from then-President Barack Obama. https://reason.com/2020/09/18/justices-who-died-in-ofice/, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-termlimits/democrats-prepare-bill-limiting-u-s-supreme-court-justice-terms-to-18-years-idUSKCN26F3L3?utm_source=reddit.com, https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/408781-americans-tend-to-be-in-favor-of-term-limits-for-most, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/24/supreme-court-reform-ideas-term-limits-rbg-age-packing-421203, https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/09/house-democrats-to-introduce-new-bill-for-supreme-court-term-limits/, https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1987-06-28-2569915-story.html#:~:text=Life%20expectancy%20in%20the%20America,years%20for%20a%20white%20male, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm, https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/08/experts-tout-proposals-for-supreme-court-term-limits/, https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm, https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-amy-coney-barrett-trump-supreme-court-nomination-ginsburg-20200925-sro7jixc55gk7e5idsqokxuxg4-story.html, https://www.npr.org/2018/06/29/624467256/what-happened-with-merrick-garland-in-2016-and-why-it-matters-now, Failure to Accommodate Divergent Views: The Supreme Court on the ACA, Contraception, and Religion. The President nominates potential justices to the Supreme Court, and the Senate must then approve the nominees. Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh, one of Kennedys former clerks, to replace him. U.S. Senate, Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment, available at, Sam Berger, Conservative Court Packing, Center for American Progress, April 3, 2019, available at, Fix the Court, Term Limits, available at, Justice Breyer rejects Democratic plan to pack Supreme Court: Nine seats is fine,, Fix the Court, Term Limits; Erwin Chemerinsky, Supreme Court needs term limits, T, Fix the Court, Dozens of Legal Scholars Demand Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices, July 8, 2019, available at, Kermit Roosevelt and Ruth-Helen Vassilas, Supreme Court justices should have term limits, CNN, September 30, 2019, available at, Christopher Sundby and Suzanna Sherry, Term Limits and Turmoil: Roe v. Wades Whiplash,, Bernadette Meyler, Retaining Stare Decisis in June Medical Services v. Russo, Stanford Law School Legal Aggregate, June 30, 2020, available at, Pew Research Center, After Gonzales v. Carhart: The Future of Abortion Jurisprudence, June 14, 2007, available at, Judicial Conference of the United States, Judgeship Appointments by President, available at, Tyler Cooper, SCOTUS Term Limits and the Final Period Problem, Fix the Court, March 23, 2020, available at, Stephen B. Burbank, S. Jay Plager, Geogory Ablavsky, Leaving the Bench, 1970-2009: The Choices Federal Judges Make, What Influences Those Choices, and Their Consequences,, Burbank, Plager, and Ablavsky, Leaving the Bench, 19702009., Editorial Board, Court Without a Quorum,. While the US Constitution does not specify the number of Supreme Court justices, neither does it specify that justices must have law degrees or have served as judges. Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, progressive political organizers, argued, We absolutely have to address the right-wing imbalance of the current court right now [Sep. 19, 2020] Theres no way to rebalance the court without expanding it. [10], Ian Millhiser, JD, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Editor of Think Progress Justice, explains the danger of a partisan court: a rigidly partisan Supreme Court risks radicalizing the electorate against democracy itself and, thus, [t]he case for court-packing is clear, and the course of action is obvious, if the Supreme Court tries to rig elections so that only Republicans can win nationally. [1], A conservative court could ensure Republican domination by ruling on matters like voting rights, essentially disallowing voting by majority Democrat groups like black voters, with voter ID, felon voting, and other disenfranchising laws. At times, however, the judicial leanings of Court Justices prove They can develop long-term relationships with lower court justices, legal scholars, and advocates who specialize in their areas of expertise. It would also provide a more regular and greater degree of turnover among the judges. Regular upheavals in law have long been raised as a potential negative outcome to term limits. Second, the Act would not harm the Courts legitimacy. WebPros And Cons Of Supreme Court Justices Life Terms A Supreme Opportunity. The most obvious benefit of having a life term as a Supreme Court justice is that it allows for long-term, consistent judicial rulings. WebScore: 4.3/5 (69 votes) . But they would be limited to 18-year terms. Life tenure can turn supposedly independent judges into political players who attempt to time their departures to secure their preferred successors, as Justice Anthony Kennedy did in 2018. For example, major cases challenging abortion rights and the promise of Roe v. Wade are regularly brought before the court. As a result, the confirmation process for the highest court has become politically divisive, with extremely narrow votes and theatrics from the nominees themselves. Supreme Court selections have always been political in nature to a degree, and sitting justices themselves often contribute to this. Does the current method of waiting until a Justice retires or dies and allowing the current president to appoint a new Justice work? Webthe Supreme Court justices write the papers that tell the decision of a case Announcing decisions Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court must petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case. [4] [5] [6], The contemporary debate has been heavily influenced by events following the Feb. 13, 2016, death of conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. It's a question many have about the U.S.'s highest courtand the rationale dates back to America's founding. This would defeat the reason for having lifetime tenure, which is the goal of shielding federal judges from outside pressure. That was a feature of the Reconstruction era. [20], Plus, the Supreme Court is fiercely independent, undercutting a simplistic view of its partisan leanings. [1] The US Constitution does not dictate the number of justices on the Supreme Court, but states only: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. Full retirement from the bench allows a judge to return to practice law and generally act without any constraint on earnings or profession; from 1970 to 2009, 80 former judges chose this path.21 In contrast, taking senior statuswhich requires some judicial service while the judge continues to be fully compensated along with certain tax advantagescomes with at least some ethics requirements in regard to limits on outside earnings.22 There are currently three former Supreme Court justices and 577 lower court judges currently in senior status. A third approach to interpreting the good behavior requirement in Article III Section 1 of the Constitution points out that it does not expressly grant life tenure to Supreme Court justices.[13] This means the requirement of having justices serve during good behavior could be met by a law allowing justices to continue their service on another federal court after they serve on the Supreme Court. Back in 1894, the Supreme Court was older not to mention whiter and all male. Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice, The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. Over the years Congress has passed various acts to change this number, fluctuating from a low of five to a high of ten. The pros and cons of a Supreme Court justice life term are manifold, and its important to consider them before making a The Act would help solve this imbalance by limiting president appointments to two per term, giving future Democratic presidents more opportunities to appoint justices than they have had so far. Supreme Court justices can serve as long as they are able, and often go down in history as some of the most influential judges in American history. Ultimately, the number of Supreme Court justices is arbitrary, easily revised by Congress, and ripe for change. Public support for judicial nominees also shows large differences between Democrats and Republicans. "US Supreme Court Packing Top 2 Pros and Cons." Life Tenure Is Too Long for Supreme Court Justices Allowing Supreme Court justices to serve for life is causing too many problems. Its a slippery slope that would [22] We should not break with over 150 years of historical precedent to play political games with the Supreme Court. As life expectancy continues to increase, it is likely that the younger justices will serve for at least that amount of time. [19] If the Court is not viewed as legitimate, the public is less likely to follow its opinions. [10] As of Sep. 22, 2020, with the death of Associate Justice Ginsburg, the court has five conservative justices and three liberal justices. The effort is frequently framed as a battle between an entrenched, reactionary Supreme Court, which overturned a slew of Roosevelts New Deal economic reforms, against a hubristic president willing to take the unprecedented step of asking Congress to appoint six new, and sympathetic, justices to the bench, according to Cicero Institute Senior Policy Advisor Judge Glock, PhD. Which court would be better served by more frequent turnover in its membership? [14] [15] As explained in Encyclopaedia Britannica, In 1807 a seventh justice was added, followed by an eighth and a ninth in 1837 and a tenth in 1863. For many, that may open the window for them to take on a new career after their term has ended. 3. Foreign courts have encountered few problems with term limits. However, it is also a substantial amount of time spent on the countrys highest court and would invite the great many prestigious opportunities allowable under senior status while providing for the comfortable lifestyle that current retired justices enjoy. The Act would balance the number of justices that each president can nominate, which would help the confirmation process become less partisan. First, there is the question of whether the reform could be achieved through statute. While these are indeed important considerations, neither objection outweighs the potential benefits of term limits. In this view, the Supreme Court would be better served by more frequent turnover in its membership. 17, 2017) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm; Kalvis Golde, Experts Tout Proposals for Supreme Court Term Limits, SCOTUSblog(Aug. 4, 2020) https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/08/experts-tout-proposals-for-supreme-court-term-limits/. His retirement would allow President Joe Biden to nominate his successor and give Democrats another liberal justice, if confirmed. If so, how? For example, the court once was unable to consider a case because it could not muster the needed quorum to do so as a result of too many justices having financial conflicts.24 While this brief does not aim to explore the merits of Supreme Court ethics reform proposals, the fact remains that the significant ethics concerns that already plague the court are unlikely to worsen with term limits in place. Web[23]. 18 years is still a long time, equal to three Senate terms. Democrats have appointed only 4 of the past 18 justices. Any new justice on the court will have an effect on how precedent is evaluated as well as how novel legal questions are decided. The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari. 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