Two senators push new plan to change how long Supreme Court justices serve
A fresh proposal to limit Supreme Court justices time in office appeared this week. The new plan would make way for new judges every couple of years‚ changing the courts long-standing setup
Early december‚ Sen Peter Welch and Sen Joe Manchin III brought-up a new idea to shake-up the Supreme Court system. Their joint-proposal aims to change how the nations highest court works by setting time-limits for justices
The bi-partisan plan (which needs to be added to constitution) would put an 18-year cap on future justices service; this would create a more predictable pattern for new appointments. Under this set-up new openings would happen about every two years — making the whole process more organized
The timing of this proposal isnt random: the Supreme Courts public-trust numbers have gone down‚ and some ethics-related problems came up recently. Both senators think its time for a fresh look at how the court system works‚ even though changing the constitution is super-hard to do
- Current justices would keep their spots
- New rules would only affect future picks
- Term endings would be spaced out every 24 months
The proposals chances are pretty low because changing constitution needs huge support from both congress and states‚ but its supporters say its worth trying to make courts work better
