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Should term limits be enacted for judges?

The Executive (President, Veep and Cabinet) must face the people (and risk being voted out) every four years. Ditto the Legislative branch (Congress and Senate). Only the Judicial branch lacks any checks and balances. Lifetime tenure is ridiculous, the elderly DO tend to lose it and the SCOTUS can be stacked so heavily that little can be done about it until those biased judges have the grace to kick the bucket.
Ten year terms (beyond the possible life of an administration), staggered so that no more than one can be up for re-nomination at a time? Expand the bench to ten, and one gets replaced (or reappointed) annually.

Posted - July 5, 2022
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Responses


  • 5455
    Term limits for justices is one of the proposals I’ve read about if there’s a constitutional convention called under Article V.  I think the proposal was for 12 year term limits with three justices up for replacement every four years unless one of them dies first.


    This post was edited by Livvie at July 5, 2022 9:08 PM MDT
      July 5, 2022 9:00 PM MDT
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  • 2757
    Term limits not just for judges but for all government officials.  I doubt the Founding Fathers intended for congress persons to be in office for a lifetime, even if they are elected.
      July 6, 2022 8:17 AM MDT
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  • 10468
    I think there should be.  Judges, who take an oath to be unbiased, seem to enjoy let politics get in the way of rendering fair decisions.  Of course, as we saw with the last president, oaths don't mean much these days.  Just meaningless words.  There needs to be a fair way to keep this to a minimum.  

    Having a supreme court judge serve for life was a way to make sure things were fair (not controlled by partisanship).  However, when the constitution was written, the average life span was around 50-60 years.  So a life term was about 10-30 years.  So if a corrupt judge did get in, he wouldn't be there long.  Today, however, the average life span is around 78 or so.  Get a 40 year old corrupt judge in there now, and you could be stuck with him for 40+ years.

    Things have changed since 1776.  While the 'founding fathers" tried to account for this, they couldn't even have fathomed just how much things would actually change.
      July 6, 2022 1:18 PM MDT
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  • 32692
    Most serve under 20 yrs now.   The longest serving Justice was 34+ yrs and that was in the Founding Father's time (1801-1835)
      July 6, 2022 6:36 PM MDT
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  • 32692
    Not until there are term limits for politicians.  Then it should be 25 yrs.

    Or every President gets one appointment.  Their appointment replaces the justice who has been on the court the longest. 
      July 6, 2022 6:29 PM MDT
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  • 32692
    There is impeachment for removal of judges and Justices.  

    Some local judges are elected. 
      July 7, 2022 7:19 AM MDT
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