How to fix the Supreme Court

Supreme Court justices shouldn't serve for life. They should each get 18 years.

A solution both sides should be happy with.
(Image credit: US Supreme Court/Franz Jantzen/Courtesy of Getty Images)

America's severe partisan polarization is wreaking havoc on each of the branches of the federal government. But it's the judiciary that's so far suffered the gravest consequences.

In the year since the death of Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court has been hobbled, forced to muddle through its tasks with just eight justices. The proximate cause of the problem was, of course, the refusal of the Republican leadership in the Senate even to hold hearings, much less permit an up-or-down vote, on Merrick Garland, President Obama's choice to succeed the conservative justice. That, in turn, has inspired Senate Democrats to refuse to meet with Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee. If the Democrats attempt a filibuster, the Republicans will be able to use their majority to force a vote by changing the rules of the Senate. That would mark yet another new low in the politicization of the high court.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.