Retired Justice Stephen Breyer has recently called for age and term limits for Supreme Court justices. While I don’t often agree with Breyer, this is an exception.
I favor term limits for Supreme Court Justices – 18 year terms for each justice applied to future appointments through a constitutional amendment. This would largely solve the problem of aging justices. It would also have several other important benefits.
But such term limits might not be enacted. If they can’t be enacted, we should adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting justices from serving once they reach 80 years of age. It is crude but it is necessary.
One reason why justices (and Presidents) require age limits is that in the modern world, staffs can do the work for them, allowing them to continue serving during their longer life spans. The justices (and Presidents) can make the decisions but may not really be competent enough to be doing so.
Posted at 8:00 AM