Posted by Orin Kerr:
Supreme Court Term Limits:
I've been pondering the merits of [1]proposals to impose 18-year term
limits for Supreme Court Justices, and have decided that I am
tentatively in favor of the basic idea.
It seems to me that 18-year Supreme Court term limits would have
some significant advantages over the current system: 1) it would tend
to make the direction of the Supreme Court more reflective of public
opinion over time and less contingent on the happenstance of who
retires; 2) it would discourage Presidents from nominating younger,
less-experienced judges to the Supreme Court with the hope that
they'll sit on the Court for 50 years, a change that would likely lead
to more experienced and more accomplished jurists being nominated; and
3) at the margins, it might lead to a somewhat more modest Supreme
Court in some areas, which at least on balance I think is a good thing
(although that of course is a complex question subject to many
differing opinions). I'm not persuaded by a number of other arguments
made in favor of Supreme Court term limits, but I think these three
arguments are significant.
The burden of persuasion is clearly on those making the proposals,
as they are recommending a significant change in the judicial
structure. But I'm beginning to come around to the view that these
proposals make sense.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_04_03-2005_04_09.shtml#1112946058
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