Perspectives on Supreme Court Term Limits

Compared to other democracies, the United States is an outlier in granting life tenure to justices, producing diminishing returns and mounting costs.

While letting justices serve during “good behavior” was designed to encourage impartiality, it now tends to promote the opposite effect. Term limits offer one solution to this problem.

The U.S. Supreme Court should follow the example of 49 states, where justices don’t serve life terms.

A former state supreme court justice discusses why judges do not need a life term to be impartial.

The Court has changed substantially since the 19th century, and the tradition of life tenure should be viewed in this historical context.

Term limits are good policy and can be implemented by statute.