A group of lawmakers, including Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), has introduced a groundbreaking bill that would establish term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices.
The Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act would require a new justice to take the bench every two years and spend 18 years in active service. Hirono said the law is needed to restore “balance and fairness” to the Court.
“Far-right groups have spent years working to tip the Supreme Court’s balance in their favor, leaving us with an outcome-driven Court that increasingly disregards precedent, separation of powers and the rule of law,” Hirono said, according to her website.“We are already seeing the detrimental consequences of this right-wing power grab — from overruling common-sense gun safety law, and restricting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to combat climate change, to eliminating the fundamental right to abortion care. We need to restore balance and fairness to our nation’s highest court. Creating term limits for Supreme Court justices is a first step in that process.”
Hirono, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the bill, along with Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Brian Schatz (D-HI).
The TERM Act, according to Hirono's website, would establish terms of 18 years in regular active service for Supreme Court justices, after which justices who retain the office will assume senior status; establish regular appointments of Supreme Court justices in the first and third years following a presidential election as the sole means of Supreme Court appointments; require current justices to assume senior status in order of length of service on the Court as regularly appointed justices receive their commissions; preserve life tenure by ensuring that senior justices retired from regular active service continue to hold the office of Supreme Court justice, including official duties and compensation; and require the Supreme Court justice who most recently assumed senior status to fill in on the Court if the number of justices in regular active service falls below nine.
Hirono's website said, “The American people strongly sense that the Supreme Court needs to be reformed,” citing a recent poll by the AP News, which found that 67% of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices.
Adding term limits and mandating appointments every two years “will ensure a Supreme Court that is more representative of the nation,” Hirono's website said. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) introduced companion legislation last week in the U.S. House of Representatives.