Bernie Sanders floats modified term limits for Supreme Court justices

(CNN) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday he was open to backing a major proposed reform to the makeup of the Supreme Court.

The Vermont independent, following the lead of some progressive legal scholars, floated a plan that would effectively end lifetime, uninterrupted appointments for Supreme Court justices.

"What may make sense is, if not term limits, then rotating judges to the appeals court as well," Sanders said at the We the People Summit in Washington. "Letting them get out of the Supreme Court and bringing in new blood."

Sanders stopped short of backing calls to add justices to the court, a strategy gaining steam with a new generation of left-wing activists, who are putting pressure on the Democratic candidates to address their concerns over the current conservative influence on the court with more ambitious plans.

"My worry is that the next time the Republicans are in power they will do the same thing," Sanders said of the court-packing option. "So I think that is not the ultimate solution."

trextra on April 2nd, 2019 at 02:50 UTC »

I think this would result in the opposite of what's intended. Term limits would result in* increased* politicization of the Court, and would needlessly disqualify excellent jurists.

Terms are fine, term limits not so much. And continuation should depend primarily on peer review.

Infidel8 on April 2nd, 2019 at 00:38 UTC »

Jane Coastan (I think) mentioned a problem with term limiting Supreme Court justices that had never crossed my mind.

When you put them in a position where they'll need to find employment after SCOTUS, you make them susceptible to influence from potential post-SCOTUS employers, like private equity firms, Fox News, etc.

Think of how many cabinet members and senators support, say, fossil fuel-friendly policies and then end up working for that industry when they leave office.

We might create a situation where our justices do the same thing, rendering decisions in hopes of forging relationships with future employers.

Just something to think about.

jpgray on April 2nd, 2019 at 00:09 UTC »

"Every judge on the federal court of appeals would also be appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court 'panel' would be composed of nine justices, selected at random from the full pool of associate justices," Epps and Sitaraman wrote. "Once selected, the justices would hear cases for only two weeks, before another set of judges would replace them."

Interesting proposal, seems like it would go a long way to de-politicizing the bench