It's time for term limits for Justices
When the constitution was written, the average life expectancy was 38 years, so a lifetime appoint to the bench was not the same as it is today. From the adoption of the current Constitution to the Civil War, only a handful of justices served more than ten years on the Supreme Court.
Five of the current Justices have served more than twenty years, giving this court an average tenure that is one of the longest in history.
But it's not just the years on the job. It's the fact that this court has become the most politically influenced and most polarized in history. While many minor cases are 9-0 rulings, the important precedents are typically 5-4 -- and there have been more 5-4 rulings under John Roberts than under any previous Chief Justice.
It's interesting to note that Brown v. Board of Education was a unanimous decision. Ponder that one for a minute. The Justices knew they were changing the fabric of American life, and they acted with caution and prudence.
They were unanimous. Can you imagine something like that happening under the Roberts court? Not possible. It would be a 5-4 decision and "separate but equal" would have remained the law of the land.
And every time a nomination comes up (which is typically rare) the process becomes a spectacle, one that John Roberts knew best how to handle. Make a series of bold-faced lies to the Confirmation Committee and then do whatever the hell you want afterward.
We need to rotate Justices off the Supreme Court, and probably off the lower federal courts as well. I say a single eight year term for the lower courts and a single twelve-year term for a Supreme Court Justice.
This is overdue.
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