The ordinary operation of the Supreme Court — choosing cases, hearing oral argument, deliberating, and issuing decisions — would remain the same. The only change: after 18 years of active service, a justice would automatically become a senior justice, and a new justice would be appointed. Senior justices would continue to hold office as the Constitution requires. They would retain important duties, such as substituting for a recused, ill, or absent colleague, or hearing cases in the lower federal courts, as many retired Supreme Court justices have done.