In the famous Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton states that justice “cannot be expected from [Supreme Court justices] who hold their offices by a temporary commission.” Making sure that the tenure of Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices was lifelong was essential to the Founding Fathers because they believed that justice could not be otherwise afforded to the American people.
However, more and more debates have surfaced recently regarding the lifelong tenure enjoyed by SCOTUS. After the recent ruling on Roe v. Wade, where the court overturned the landmark decision 6-3, the Brookings Institute found that two-thirds of Americans believed that the Supreme Court should be term-limited. But why is this?
There are a number of drawbacks to giving Supreme Court justices lifetime tenure. One is that it allows for presidents to continue to exercise their influence over the court long after they have left office. Some will even pick young nominees to make sure that said justices have decades of ensured tenure, thus maximizing their political influence. For instance, despite the fact that Donald Trump was voted out of office after a single term, the three justices that he appointed have the potential to stay on the court for decades. In fact, if we assume that all three justices will retire at 83 (the age at which the most recently-retired justice left the court), a third of the court will be influenced by Donald Trump’s politics for the next twenty years.
If you’re wondering why the Founding Fathers thought that this would be an acceptable democratic process, it's because, back then, justices stayed on the court for far less time. Only three of the eleven justices nominated by George Washington stayed on the court for longer than ten years.
However, as long as these justices are qualified and still act as an apolitical hand of the state, there’s no reason to be unhappy with lifetime tenure. The problem is that justices are becoming less bound to justice and are increasingly being used as political props and tools. In the 2016 election, Donald Trump claimed he would nominate justices that would overturn Roe vs. Wade; Hillary Clinton claimed she would nominate justices that would overturn Citizens United (which allows independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations). Justices aren’t apolitical in this sense; instead, they’ve already chosen how they are going to vote before reading the cases they are voting on.
But how would implementing term limits solve these problems?
Firstly, cutting back on the amount of time justices spend on the court would not only stop one president from controlling an entire branch of government for decades, but would also cause regular change in thought and diversity of opinion. The Washington Post found that term limits have the potential to cut extreme partisan imbalance on the court in half and ensure the court’s composition more democratically reflects the American people.
Furthermore, although there’s no way that we could completely prevent presidential candidates from politicizing their justices, making it so that every two years a justice gets cycled out of the court (which is how the plan proposed in Congress would work) would ensure that every voice is heard and the Supreme Court can analyze cases from all sides.
Finally, we wanted to echo a different sentiment by the Founding Fathers. Although the American Revolution sought to create a more democratic, less monarchical form of government, there are still some aspects of colonial government present in our society today.
Assuming Justice Clarence Thomas retires at the age Steven Breyer did last year, he will have served 41 years on the court, about 2.5 times as long as King George III ruled over the United Colonies before the American Revolution. Lifetime tenure is not about democratic procedure or apolitical legal doctrine. There is only one change that can be made to the Supreme Court that could bring us back to equal justice under law: term limits. 🆅
The opinions expressed within this piece are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of North Mecklenburg High School or the Viking Voice.