Democrats Plan to Propose a Bill Limiting Years of Service for Supreme Court Justices

After rising tensions between the two parties, Democrats are planning to propose a bill next week that will limit the years of service for Supreme Court Justices from a lifetime appointment to an 18-year tenure. Recently, it’s been seen that Justices serve about 25 years.

Democrats say this would reduce partisan debate and contention as well as preserve the legitimacy of the court. Per every four-year-term, a sitting President would have the opportunity to nominate only two justices.

Ro Khanna, Representative from California said, “It would save the country a lot of agony and help lower the temperature over fights for the court that go to the fault lines of cultural issues and is one of the primary things tearing at our social fabric.”

Representatives Joe Kennedy III [MA] and Don Beyer [VA] will present the bill with Representative Khanna on Tuesday. This bill is the first of it’s kind and is called the Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act.

On April 5, 2019, SCOTUSblog published a piece siting problems of term limits for Supreme Court Justices saying, “A Supreme Court that welcomes a new justice every two years, and turns over entirely over the course of every 18 years, could wreak havoc on doctrinal stability. Under the current constitutionally mandated system of life tenure, the court changes slowly. Most justices serve at least 20 years and many serve 30 years or more; no new justices joined the court at all between 1994 and 2005. This longevity and stability means that doctrine changes slowly and incrementally. A constantly changing court, on the other hand, might make sudden and radical changes in doctrine.”

Sources: Breaking 911, Reuters, SCOTUSblog; Photo-WBUR