Reply to mandatory retirement for supreme court judges

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Freeman]I fail to see how any of the suggestions would actually help the problem of political affiliation. By increasing the frequency of appointments, you make the position more politically dependent than now. As for the "being out of touch" argument, the pool of applicants would remain largely the same, generally pulling from the federal appeals courts, so that charge would likely remain the same as well. Traditionally, there have often been calls for changes to the supreme court, such as the term limits listed here. Once whatever present turmoil is triggering it blows over, it tends to die down. I think what people should keep in mind is that the same court structure used today has served us well for over 200 years. In the past, the justices were much more politically affiliated than they are today.(Just read up on how many of them were appointed.) The justices generally came from the ranks of the current party, governors, senators, and their appointment often came from backroom deals among the power brokers of the time.(Some of the most famous court justices received their appointments in this manner) The problems being expressed are nothing new, and they've never prevented the court from fulfilling its primary mission. You may disagree with some of the decisions of particular justices, but that doesn't mean the entire structure needs to be changed.[/quote]

The average tenure of a supreme court justice from 1789-1970 was less than 15 years, and for justices retiring since then it has been over 26 years, and I think that is only going to get worse with younger nominees (and better healthcare).

It used to be that there were vacancies every couple of years, but now some presidents may get 2 and some get none.  I don't see why guaranteeing every president 2 appointments (by staggering 18 year appointments every 2 years) would make the position more politically dependent.[/quote]

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