They need to stop being presidential appointees.
For fuck sakes America, you need to dial back the power of POTUS, because it's far more than any King worldwide.
this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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This would be a good start, though it's probably too late for meaningful enough change to our system of government.
18 years is too long. The longer a person is allowed to keep authority, the greater the odds of corruption become. I have proposed 10 year terms in the past, but still feel uncomfortable about letting anyone have that much time.
People have told me that justices are supposed to stay a long time, to offer stability and to be free of political campaigns. However, the longer the Trump Regime operates, the greater disbelief that I have in long-held offices. To me, it feels like that I was told lies by the people who opposed term and age limits.
18 years is the correct length. It' the shortest term that prevents a single 2-term President from being able to replace the majority of the Court.
I think there is a better way. Assuming that the USA is broken up into major regions, each with their own judiciary and executive, they can send some justices to represent them on the national stage. The president of a region also picks a justice when their term begins, and that justice has a term of up to 5 years or until the next president picks their own justice. When the new executive justice is picked, their predecessor is removed from office. The judiciary and congressional justices have 10 year terms.
This prevents executive justices lasting longer than 10 years, likely 5 if a president sucks. Meanwhile, the judicial and congressional justices last 10 years by default, making them more influential than the executive.
That changes judges into representatives and completely defeats the entire purpose of the judicial branch and removes judicial independence.
It also changes the country into a confederation. We tried that in 1776 and it didn't work AT ALL, and then part of the country tried it again in the 1860s, and it lead to a war that resulted in more US deaths than all other US wars combined.
Should be the same as president.
I support 18 years, it is better than lifetime appointment.
I would also support 9 years per term, with no limit on number of terms, but requiring full process (including Senate consultation and approval) for re-appointments.
The problem I see with shorter terms is more opportunity for a corrupt executive branch to pack the court with corrupt, or at least highly political, justices. With 18 year terms they could be staggered out so one justice every 2 years would reach the end of their term and need to be replaced, limiting that to 2 justices per presidential term.
But, with shorter terms, they also get reviewed/replaced more often, in fact with 9 year terms, they get at most 2 executives / 2 senates safe.
I’m ok with this. Long enough to develop institutional knowledge, but eliminates the “I'm set for life and nobody can do anything to me” attitudes.
Plus about half the court would cycle out right this moment.
If became effective immediately, by the end of his term Trump would have installed 8 of the 9 justices on the Court, as Sotamayor and Kagan were both first-term Obama appointees.
The last time this was discussed, the idea was to cycle them out every 2 years, starting with the longest-serving (Thomas) through the newest (Jackson).
That would result in no change to the current partisan makeup during Trump's term. If it were to take effect on January 1, he would get to change out Thomas and Roberts, with the next President getting Alito and Sotamayor in their first term, and Kagan and Gorsuch in their second.
It would actually be ideal to wait until the next President (hopefully a Dem) if the goal was to restore balance, since the first 3 replacements seats were all Republican-appointed.
Though what would actually happen is the Thomas, Alito, and Roberts would all resign and be replaced by new Republicans right before the law took effect so that the longest-remaining terms were all Republican-appointed when the law takes effect.
OF course. Timing is everything
I suspect this would only apply to justices going forward; even if this passed, we're stuck with the current ppl.
Not the exact amendment that the article is about. It's explicit that anyone over the limit is gone when it's ratified.
And if they cycle out right now we'd have Trump / Federalist Society pics
Given the way the Democrats behave even if they were in power the Republicans would just have to complain that's it's 4 years too close to an election and the end result would be the same.
Way too long, but if it could be retroactively in effect then maybe.
Way too long
With no limits on tenure, the average Supreme Court term since 1993 has reached 28 years — over twice as long as most peer countries. I would say that knocking 10 years off this average - particularly when three of the worst judges are already over the limit would yield an immediate and dramatic improvement in court functions. I also don't know what the optimal SCOTUS tenure should be. 8 years? 12 years? 2 years? Presumably, you want extended terms to cement court precedent. But, idk, maybe you don't?
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any actual text of this bill. Just a bunch of headlines announcing the announcement.
So it's very possible he's grandfathered sitting SCOTUS judges in, at which point the bill would be worse than performative.
10 seems to be average and keeps it off them presidential election cycle most years.
"The tenure in office of a justice of the Supreme Court may not exceed 18 years. In the case of any justice who is serving as of the ratification of this amendment, if the tenure in office of that justice is 18 years or more, that term of that justice shall be terminated. If such a justice is the Chief Justice, the position shall be filled in accordance with law."
That's the entirety of the proposed amendment.
Seems pretty straightforward. But do we really want to give Trump a chance to get 3 more justices that will rule the courts for the next 18 years?
Exactly. A phased rollout could give successive administrations opportunity to select their own. But let's not be naïve: they'd all quit now to give their seats to Trump appointees.
"In the case of any justice who is serving as of the ratification of this amendment, if the tenure in office of that justice is 18 years or more, that term of the justice having the longest tenure shall be terminated immediately. Every two years thereafter the next longest tenured justice shall be teminated until such time no justice having over 18 years tenure remains."
A better solution would be an expansion then contraction. Add 2 seats every two years for 6 years, then start removing at 18 years two years after we have 15 justices. Hopefully by that time most will have voluntary left anyway,and we will have had enough executive and congressional turnover to make this more fair and representative.
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8 or 10 sounds okay since they're appointed by POTUS, shorter terms might be problematic because it would make it easier to stack unless we limit that power somehow. I don't want mummies holding office forever to cement precedent, I want progress which aligns with the views of the current majority of voters.
H.J.Res. 174: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide for term limits for justices of the Supreme Court.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/174?hl=H.J.Res.+174&s=4&r=1
https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hjres174/BILLS-119hjres174ih.pdf
8 or 10 sounds okay
But why? Like, what's the reasoning of 10 years rather than 12 or 6 or 24? It seems like we're trying to apply a magic number to a policy problem. If the SCOTUS judges come to the same rules with different term limits, are we going to come back here and say we need to fiddle with the magic number some more?
I don’t want mummies holding office forever to cement precedent
I think one of the upshots of lifetime term limits has been younger and younger bench appointees. Roberts was 50 when he took the job.
H.J.Res. 174: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide for term limits for justices of the Supreme Court.
Well, there's the damned thing. Not great that it has zero co-sponsors. But I guess people are talking about it, which is nice.
“The tenure in office of a justice of the Supreme Court may not exceed 18 years. In the case of any justice who is serving as of the ratification of this amendment, if the tenure in office of that justice is 18 years or more, that term of that justice shall be terminated. If such a justice is the Chief Justice, the position shall be filled in accordance with law.”
Ah, I see he's got balls enough to put the right kind of language in there. Wish he could rally some other reps behind this idea before he launched it.
In support of 18 it’s terms staggered every two years with the current 9 justices, so each president gets two. Personally I’d hope after year 1 and year 3, so as to avoid any tomfoolery of immediately taking office and installing a troublemaker.
Not quite sure how I’d handle it if we get to 13 Justices like we’ll need to.
Not quite sure how I’d handle it if we get to 13 Justices like we’ll need to.
It's crazy that we have 12 regional circuits and only nine judges to oversee them. But imagine how many people would freak out at the number 13 if we had that many judges
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It is explicitly retroactive.
Here's the entire amendment:
"The tenure in office of a justice of the Supreme Court may not exceed 18 years. In the case of any justice who is serving as of the ratification of this amendment, if the tenure in office of that justice is 18 years or more, that term of that justice shall be terminated. If such a justice is the Chief Justice, the position shall be filled in accordance with law."
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This is a constitutional amendment, y'all realize that's a generational project, right? Impeachment and removal are trivial by comparison.
Actually, the way that some of these recent bills have been worded is designed to be achievable without an amendment:
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Justices that reach their term limit would be assigned "senior status"
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they would still hold their appointment for life, but wouldnt actually serve on the Court again unless there was a vacancy
By doing it this way, they preserve the "lifetime appointment" part in the Constitution while still leaving room for a regular infusion of new people
NGL, this is clever as fuck.
This is the kind of shit I want out of democrats. I know rule of law is iffy right now but damn I rather have them doing shit like this than peering down their glasses at us.
I wonder what the Baileys would think of this.
Can I drink them from a shoe?
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By doing it this way, they preserve the "lifetime appointment" part in the Constitution while still leaving room for a regular infusion of new people
...Until someone brings a lawsuit, which goes to the Supreme Court and they conveniently decide for themselves that the law imposing term limits on them is unconstitutional.
"Lifetime appointment" is still appropriate phrasing if part of their posting includes that they WILL be summarily "removed" if they are shown to be partisan.
/S obviously
Not really. The Constitution says that the SCOTUS exists but other than that, Congress can manage it. There have been MANY more than 9 justices in the past, and there have been many less. In each case, Congress passed a law setting that number.
If a 2nd American Civil War happens, we would have many generational projects to complete. Might as well get discussion about them started now, so that implementation can happen quickly when the time comes.
The Constitution specifies that the justices and other federal judges shall serve "during good behavior." This is interpreted as a lifetime appointment, subject to impeachment. That's why this proposal is written as a constitutional amendment. It would need a 2/3 majority in both houses, and then 3/4 of state legislatures would need to ratify.
There's another idea floating around to impose de facto term limits by regular federal law by rotating justices in and out of lower federal courts at defined intervals.
There are also a bunch of other things that an angry Congress could do to rein in the court (using regular federal law):
- they could use the good behavior clause to impose a written ethics code, or the CLE requirement that another commenter mentioned.
- they can set the court's jurisdiction (except for suits between states). They can take jurisdiction away.
- On another jurisdictional topic: currently nearly all of the court's docket is discretionary. They get to decide which cases to take up. Congress can take that power away and force the court to hear appeals on a mandatory basis again.
- Congress controls the annual budget. They get to decide whether the justices have money for clerks, robes, and office supplies or not.
- Congress can specify what dates the court is in session and for how long. At least one time, this power was used to try to prevent the court from meeting.
- Likewise, for a large part of the court's history, Congress decreed that the court meet in the basement of the Capitol. Not the big fancy marble building. It could happen again.
- as part of its oversight power, Congress has the power to subpoena justices to hearings and to grill them on their decisions on live TV. This actually happened to Justice Kennedy after Bush v. Gore.
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This will never fly like this. Republicans arnt going to vote out thier majority. But it's good to start trying to push the idea and make it an actual law some day.
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What would be a realistic argument for and against this. Seems like if your party is in the majority regardless you wouldn't want it and vice versa.
Originally, the Supreme Court was just supposed to be the highest court. The Founding Fathers wanted those positions to be apolitical, and they thought a good way of doing that would be making the position last a lifetime. I.e., if you dont have to worry about getting re-elected, your decisions will be more pure.
Things changed due to Marbury vs. Madison, where the court gave itself the power of judicial review, essentially the power to change laws, which is where they became much more powerful. Nowadays, people are taught that there are 3 branches of government with checks and balances over each other, which is true, but it was not originally that way until Marbury vs. Madison.
The problem with literally any government form, though, is that there is never any immunity to bad actors. Term limits dont necessarily solve anything, but if the justices are acting like any other politician anyway, we might as well treat them that way.
I would argue the best solution is ironclad ethics rules that are grounds for impeachment. E.g., if you are clearly owned by a billionaire, you should be impeached. That comes back around to the "no safety from bad actors"-problem, though, when congress refuses to do the "right" thing.
Forbid Supreme Court justices from ever owning anything ever again after they become justices. Establish a community for Supreme Court justices that has nice houses, amenities, everything that they could reasonably want, and then require that they and their immediate families live in the Supreme Court compound. Anyone found violating this oath is stripped of all benefits and exiled to Scottsdale Arizona to live out the remainder of their miserable lives.
exiled to Scottsdale Arizona to live out the remainder of their miserable lives.
Fuckin' brutal!
I honestly think the penalty for some types of financial crimes should be forcing them to live in a one bedroom apartment and work a retail or other customer service job. Scottsdale is too nice for those people, though. Maybe it should be more of an exurb that requires a long commute.
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