Wednesday, August 14, 2024

SCOTUS term limits?

The NLJ has Supreme Court Term Limits Are Doable By Statute, Retired Federal Judge Says

  • President Joe Biden has proposed 18-year terms for justices, with presidents able to appoint a new member every two years. He hasn’t yet provided details on how it would work, but a bipartisan commission Biden assembled issued a report in 2021 that suggested justices serve 18 years and then sit when a recusal arises or by designation on the lower courts.
  • Congress can create term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices by statute, even if it may be a “difficult political slog,” retired federal appeals court judge Diane Wood said Tuesday.
  • during a Brennan Center for Justice event Tuesday, Wood said Congress has power under the Constitution to make “exceptions and regulations” to the appellate work of the Supreme Court.
  • She also said that at one point in the court’s history, justices were required to hear lower court cases. Members “rode circuit” until 1891–meaning that Congress assigned justices to occasionally handle cases in other courts, added Wood, who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1995 to 2022.