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‘NO ONE DESERVES POWER FOR LIFE’: COALITION DEMANDS SUPREME COURT
TERM LIMITS  
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Jessica Corbett
April 9, 2024
Common Dreams
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_ "The TERM Act is necessary because lifetime tenure on the United
States Supreme Court leads to a court that is insulated from, and
unaccountable to, the American people," said Rep. Hank Johnson, the
bill's sponsor. _

Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the
Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on October 7, 2022., Olivier
Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

 

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on presidential
immunity [[link removed]]
and other major issues
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in the months ahead, more than 50 advocacy groups on Tuesday endorsed
legislation that would create 18-year terms for current and future
justices and provide two appointments for each presidential term.

"Extremists on the Supreme Court have undermined our democracy and
fundamental freedoms by gutting voting rights, opening the floodgates
to unlimited corporate money in our elections, and reversing 50 years
of precedent by overturning _Roe v. Wade_," said Stand Up America
executive director Christina Harvey in a statement.

"No one deserves power for life," she argued. "That's why 49 out of 50
states have either term limits, elections, or age limits for their
highest courts. To protect our democracy and our fundamental freedoms,
Congress should enact term limits for the U.S. Supreme Court."

"To protect our democracy and our fundamental freedoms, Congress
should enact term limits for the U.S. Supreme Court."

Along with Stand Up, organizations calling on Congress to pass the
Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM)
Act include Accountable.US, Alliance for Justice, Brennan Center for
Justice, Color of Change, Center for Popular Democracy, Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Demand Justice, Greenpeace
USA, Indivisible, March for Our Lives, MoveOn, NextGen America, People
for the American Way, Public Citizen
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Families Party.

The TERM Act (H.R. 5566
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led by Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who reintroduced the bill in
September and said
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during an event outside the Supreme Court that "our system is broken,
and Congress must act if we are to save freedom, liberty, and
democracy for all."

Noting that the bill is part of a reform package that includes the
Judiciary Act
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Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act
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Johnson argued that "the TERM Act is necessary because lifetime tenure
on the United States Supreme Court leads to a court that is insulated
from, and unaccountable to, the American people, which is bad for
democracy."

As Johnson's office detailed at the time, along with establishing term
limits and the new appointment schedule, the bill would:

* Require current justices to assume senior status in order of
length of service on the court as regularly appointed justices receive
their commissions;
* Preserve life tenure by ensuring that senior justices retired from
regular active service continue to hold the office of Supreme Court
justice, including official duties and compensation; and
* Require a randomly selected senior status Supreme Court justice to
fill in on the court if the number of justices in regular active
service falls below nine.

The legislation now has 28 co-sponsors
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key House leaders: Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila
Jayapal [[link removed]] (D-Wash.),
Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Judiciary
Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Oversight
Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
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Since former GOP President Donald Trump worked with Senate Republicans
to create a right-wing supermajority on the country's highest court by
appointing
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Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, people
and advocacy groups across the country have been increasingly
demanding reforms.

Those calls have been bolstered by revelations about multiple
justices' relationships
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ultrawealthy individuals and the Supreme Court's November response to
mounting concerns: a nonbinding code of conduct that critics decried
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as a "toothless PR stunt."

In contrast with his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden has
so far only appointed one member of the court: Justice Ketanji Brown
Jackson—who in 2022 replaced
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a retiring liberal, keeping in place the 6-3 ideological split.

After beating Trump in 2020, Biden is set to face him again in the
November presidential election, thanks in part to the Supreme Court's
9-0 ruling
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last month that states can't remove federal candidates from their
ballots—as Colorado had, determining that the former president was
constitutionally ineligible to return to elected office because he had
engaged in insurrection.

The court is set to hear arguments in another Trump-related case later
this month. The Republican is trying to dodge federal charges for
interfering with the 2020 election—one of his four ongoing criminal
cases—by claiming presidential immunity. In amicus briefs submitted
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advocacy groups, business leaders, constitutional scholars, former
government and military officials, historians, and national security
professionals warned that a finding in Trump's favor would endanger
U.S. democracy.

The three Trump appointees have not recused themselves from the cases;
neither has Justice Clarence Thomas
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wife Ginni Thomas was involved in right-wing efforts to block
certification of Biden's win.

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Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

* US Supreme Court; Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and
Retirement Modernization;
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