Supreme Court Term Limits

In the Friday, April 8, edition of The Wall Street Journal Northwestern University Law School professors Steven Calabresi and James Lindgren had a wonderfully interesting short opinion piece entitled "Supreme Gerontocracy."  The article is available here. 

Calabresi and Lindgren note that it has been almost 11 years since there was an opening on the U.S. Supreme Court and that this group of nine justices has served together longer than any other group in U.S. history.  This reflects, among other things, the fact that the average tenure of Supreme Court justices has increased significantly in the recent past. 

"From 1789 until 1970, justices served an average of 14.0 years.  Those who have stepped down since 1970, however, have served an average of 25.6 years.  ...  The reason for this is not hard to find, Recently, the average age at time of appointment has been 53, which is the same as the average age of appointment over the rest of American history.  The retirement age, however, has jumped from an average of 68 pre-1970 to 79 for justices retiring post-1970."   

And there have been costs to this increase.  Most significantly, some contend that "decrepitude has been a problem with the last 10 justices to retire." 

Calabresi and Lindgren think that an average tenure of 25.6 years is too long for this institution -- any governmental institution -- to operate effectively.  They note that none of the 50 states allows its supreme court justices to serve for life and that most developed countries have mandatory retirement ages for their supreme court justices. 

To correct the situation, Calabresi and Lindgren argue for "a constitutional amendment that would limit the justices to an 18-year-term with one seat opening up every two years." 

The authors are participating in a conference on "Reforming the Supreme Court" held at the Duke Law School on April 9.  You can read more about the conference here. 

TSU

Comments

[Josh]

I think the authors have shed some light on a perhaps troublesome problem, but their solution is lacking. I mean, don't we already have a process for the removal of Justices?

Nice blog by the way, I'll be sure to check it often.

[Eduardo Stordeur]

I am from Argentina so I have some experience on bad quality institutions. DONT TUCH THE SUPREME COURT. Beliave me, don´t do it. !!! Let the old men control the power !.