Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce bill on Supreme Court term limits

The Supreme Court.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Three Democratic lawmakers plan on introducing legislation next week that would limit Supreme Court justice terms to 18 years, Reuters reports.

The Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act would allow a president to nominate two justices per four-year term. After retirement, a justice would become "senior" and rotate to lower courts, Reuters says. The bill, which will be introduced on Tuesday by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), and Don Beyer (D-Va.), exempts current justices.

This measure comes in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death last week, as President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) aim to confirm Trump's third Supreme Court pick ahead of the Nov. 3 election. "It would save the country a lot of agony and help lower the temperature over fights for the court that go to the fault lines of cultural issues and is one of the primary things tearing at our social fabric," Khanna told Reuters.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

On average, justices now spend more than 25 years on the court. Conservative and liberal legal scholars support term limits, although some believe they could only be enacted through a constitutional amendment. Read more at Reuters.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.