President Joe Biden’s recent advocacy for an 18-year term limit for U.S. Supreme Court justices aligns with historical practices and could significantly ease partisan tensions around court appointments. Biden’s proposal stipulates that each president be guaranteed two Supreme Court picks per term, effectively normalizing the appointment process and curbing the increasingly common phenomenon of strategic retirements. For more details on Biden’s announcement, see Washington Post.
Support for term limits transcends political divisions, with 89% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans favoring the proposed cap. This bipartisan consensus sees term limits as a protective measure against the growing overreach of justices, whose influence in American politics has never been greater. The YouGov poll underlines this broad agreement across the political spectrum.
The average tenure of justices has nearly doubled in recent decades. Justices who retired post-1990 served, on average, 26.3 years, as highlighted in recent research. Historically, from 1789 to 1970, vacancies occurred approximately every two years with justices serving for an average of 14.9 years, as noted by conservative scholar Steven Calabresi in a 2006 paper (link).
Term limits could mitigate the partisan battles that currently surround Supreme Court appointments, restoring traditional norms and bolstering public trust in the judiciary. Biden’s proposal aims to recalibrate the Court’s role, in line with the original vision of the Framers, who operated under very different life expectancy assumptions, with an average life span of about 44 years for white males according to data from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (PDF).
The American public’s faith in the Supreme Court has plummeted to historic lows, a phenomenon attributable to the cyclical partisanship gripping judicial appointments. Reducing the “partisan temperature” in this arena could enhance the institution’s legitimacy, reviving its intended role as an impartial arbiter of the law. For a deeper analysis of these trends, Congress provides further context in this testimony.
By anchoring the Supreme Court’s practices to its historical roots, Biden’s term limit initiative is not a drastic overhaul but a measure to restore stability and predictability to the nation’s highest court, a view supported by various recent polls.
For a comprehensive understanding of the bipartisan approach to this proposal, Amanda Hollis-Brusky of Pomona College, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ US Supreme Court Working Group, elaborates further in Bloomberg Law.