President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law.
President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law.
From his first day in office—and every day since then—President Biden has taken action to strengthen American democracy and protect the rule of law. In
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This whole “every two years” new justice thing is really bothering me. Did he say that or is the journalist taking liberties?
I wonder because that timing will fly straight out the window the minute someone retires early or dies. Does the next Justice get a shorter term? A longer one? Does the seat go empty for a time? Do we end up having cycles of presidencies that get to appoint 3 or 4 justices in one term?
Bah- this will keep me up tonight, I just know it.
Every 2 years the longest-standing justice would be replaced, if they have served at least 18 years. Since there are nine justices this means each will get an 18 year term exactly. Any early exits would just mean you skip the next cycle. That's how I'd imagine it anyway.
Not sure what the solution would be that is proposed by the legal experts but it seems to me that we already have a system for dealing with that for the office of the president in the form of vice presidents etc taking over if they die. Not that you should have to have an entire chain of people ready to take over for every SC justice but rather, if one dies or retires or whatever before their 18 years is up then a replacement can be appointed to finish the remainder of their term.
I don't even know why we need specific appointments for the seats. Just rotate judges from the lower courts through.
I imagine it will be the seat itself is reappointed on a fixed schedule, that would function most similarly to the Presidency or Congress. The replacement be more or less an “acting” Justice to finish the term.
I saw someone mentioned that if something happened and a seat was vacated early, one of the justices whose term had expired could be brought in to serve in that seat until it is filled with a new person at the next scheduled time. But that seems to mean that some other justice(s) more senior than the one who vacated might wind up serving more than the normal 18 years as they wouldn't be replaced until the next cycle.
As far as a president getting to appoint 3 justices in one term, we just had that with trump. IMO there really should be more than just 9 seats. A common suggestion is 13, one for each District.