A scholar of the Supreme Court and its relationship to the people of the United States says that President Joe Biden’s proposed term limits for justices can restore the court’s eroded legitimacy.
Would a term limit by itself ensure that each president gets two appointments, if justices time their retirements strategically to preserve their faction on the court?
Suppose all the conservative justices retire en bloc as soon as a Republican wins the presidency, resetting the terms for all their seats to another 18 years. As long as another Republican wins within the next 18 years and the new justices continue the tactic, they can prevent a Democrat from replacing any of them indefinitely.
I think you could set it up in case of a vacancy (retirement/resignation /impeachment/death) someone would be nominated to fill that slot but it’s term limit would still be the same as when the person vacated, so if they were 10 years in, whoever it would be could only serve 8 more years
That wouldn’t really be a term limit so much as a fixed term, then—and for partial/suffect terms, it might conflict with the original intention that the Supreme Court be immune from short-term political intrigues. (And of course it would also give some presidents more than two appointments per term.)
Another option might be to appoint one justice strictly every two years, with no fixed term and no fixed number of justices. Then the number of justices would fluctuate around half the number of years in the average term—so nine justices with an average term of 18 years, twelve justices with an average term of 24 years, etc.
Would a term limit by itself ensure that each president gets two appointments, if justices time their retirements strategically to preserve their faction on the court?
Suppose all the conservative justices retire en bloc as soon as a Republican wins the presidency, resetting the terms for all their seats to another 18 years. As long as another Republican wins within the next 18 years and the new justices continue the tactic, they can prevent a Democrat from replacing any of them indefinitely.
I think you could set it up in case of a vacancy (retirement/resignation /impeachment/death) someone would be nominated to fill that slot but it’s term limit would still be the same as when the person vacated, so if they were 10 years in, whoever it would be could only serve 8 more years
That wouldn’t really be a term limit so much as a fixed term, then—and for partial/suffect terms, it might conflict with the original intention that the Supreme Court be immune from short-term political intrigues. (And of course it would also give some presidents more than two appointments per term.)
Another option might be to appoint one justice strictly every two years, with no fixed term and no fixed number of justices. Then the number of justices would fluctuate around half the number of years in the average term—so nine justices with an average term of 18 years, twelve justices with an average term of 24 years, etc.
exactly, no matter the rules the system will be gamed. retirements, deaths, stonewalling al la mcconnell… there’s no way to account for it all.