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A Democratic congressman has introduced a bill that seeks to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices in order to combat corruption, as the institution has grown increasingly partisan in recent years.
Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Maryland) introduced the Reform of Bench Eligibility (ROBE) Act on Monday. The bill would institute 18-year tenures for Supreme Court justices, ensuring a regular rotation of new justices every two years or so and ending the lifetime appointments currently enjoyed by members of the bench.
The proposal would apply to current justices, with provisions for a transition to the new rules. The change to the Supreme Court would not require a constitutional amendment, as Article III provides that the judiciary is regulated by acts of Congress.
“Faith in the court depends on its legitimacy as a fair and independent institution,” Olszewski said in a press release introducing his proposal. “Recent rulings that have thrown out decades of legal precedent, combined with ethically dubious behavior by sitting judges, are testing that faith.”
Olszewski added that justices of the court “should not be hobnobbing at White House dinners and flying on the private jets of friends who have business before the Court.”
All six conservative bloc members of the Supreme Court attended a state dinner at the White House last week, an unusual action for justices. Several justices have also received millions of dollars worth of gifts from private donors who have benefited from their rulings.
Olszewski’s office noted that “modern tenure lengths are the longest in American history, and retirement decisions have increasingly become strategic.”
“By establishing term limits, we can reduce the political gamesmanship surrounding appointments, restore balance to the process, and strengthen the integrity of the Court,” Olszewski said.
The bill faces unlikely odds, given that Republicans, who oppose term limits for justices, control both houses of Congress. President Donald Trump, who frequently brags about his three appointments to the court, would also have to sign the bill into law.
Recent polling indicates that Americans are largely supportive of changes to the Supreme Court, including term limits. A Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll from February, for example, found that 65 percent of Americans back the idea of term limits, while only 15 percent are opposed.
After establishing a commission in 2024 to explore possible reforms to the court, former President Joe Biden endorsed the idea of term limits for justices. Biden’s endorsement came shortly after the court ruled in favor of presidential “immunity,” providing significant legal cover for presidents who commit criminal actions while in office.
Biden called for term limits to “ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity,” making them “more predictable and less arbitrary.”
Several legal experts have lauded the concept of term limits, citing the current partisanship of the Supreme Court, as evidenced by strategic retirements.
Akhil Reed Amar, a constitutional law professor at Yale Law School, said in 2023 that the current appointment process and lifetime tenure system create “an arms race for people to maximize the number of years of their influence.”
“Justices time their resignations in political ways, and that’s not great,” he added.
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