House Democrat Introduces Bill to End Lifetime Supreme Court Tenures
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A Democratic congressman has introduced a bill that seeks to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices in order to combat corruption, as the institution has grown increasingly partisan in recent years.
Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Maryland) introduced the Reform of Bench Eligibility (ROBE) Act on Monday. The bill would institute 18-year tenures for Supreme Court justices, ensuring a regular rotation of new justices every two years or so and ending the lifetime appointments currently enjoyed by members of the bench.
The proposal would apply to current justices, with provisions for a transition to the new rules. The change to the Supreme Court would not require a constitutional amendment, as Article III provides that the judiciary is regulated by acts of Congress.
“Faith in the court depends on its legitimacy as a fair and independent institution,” Olszewski said in a press release introducing his proposal. “Recent rulings that have thrown out decades of legal precedent, combined with ethically dubious behavior by sitting judges, are testing that faith.”
Olszewski added that justices of the court “should not be hobnobbing at White House dinners and flying on the private jets of friends who have business before the Court.”
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