U.S. adults favor term-limiting Supreme Court justices by a 3-to-1 margin, by oppose expanding the court 42%-38%, according to Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in April 2021. Read story here.
One of the three legs of the American system of government, the Court has been controversial throughout its history, because of its power to nullify actions of Congress and/or the President, and because some of its decisions have proved highly unpopular.
Currently, Supreme Court justices serve for life, or until they choose to retire or resign. They’re appointed by the President and require Senate confirmation. But Democrats are taking a hard look at that after Republicans obstructed an Obama appointee, then jammed through three Trump appointees, including one in the closing days of his administration — a hard-right conservative who replaced an iconic liberal justice. The Court’s current 6-3 conservative majority engineered by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell is unrepresentative of the American public, and Democrats want to do something about that.
This poll suggests a potential way forward for them: By chipping away at that majority with forced retirements of older conservative justices, instead of outvoting them by adding more seats and justices to the Court. But they can’t do either without bypassing or getting rid of the Senate filibuster, and at least 3 Democratic senators aren’t on board for that, so it’s unlikely anything will change unless they’re able to expand their ultra-thin Senate majority in future elections.
Term limits would require a constitutional amendment. [This comment has been edited.]
There are two questions here. (1) Should justices be term-limited? (2) Can Congress constitutionally legislate term limits? Opinions on both issues are all over the map. Former GOP governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, in 2016, came out in favor of term limits; that was before the court had its present conservative majority. Now, it’s Democrats who want term limits, but they don’t have the Senate votes. In all probability, this is an academic argument for the foreseeable future. But were Congress to enact Supreme Court term limits, nobody can definitively say how a constitutional challenge would play out, because we simply don’t know. Your comment is aspirational, not a statement of law.