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: The Importance of Term Limits for the Supreme Court
Past Event


The Importance of Term Limits for the Supreme Court


Center for American Progress
2:30 - 3:30 PM EDT

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Democracy

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Join the conversation on Twitter using #SCOTUSTermLimits.

The rules governing the Supreme Court must be updated to reflect the realities of modern life. The average tenure of a Supreme Court justice has significantly lengthened since the establishment of the federal judiciary in the 1700s, giving outsize power to nine individuals in a way never imagined by the framers of the Constitution. This longevity has also resulted in a lack of regularity in vacancies, introducing further randomness into the judicial selection process. As a result, the confirmation process for the highest court has turned into a political sideshow. This state of affairs in untenable. Policymakers must address these issues and enact legislation creating term limits for justices.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion on the importance of term limits for the U.S. Supreme Court—featuring professor Jamal Greene, Gabe Roth from Fix the Court, and Caroline Fredrickson from the Brennan Center for Justice.

We’d love to hear your questions. Please submit any questions you have for our distinguished panel via email at [email protected] or on Twitter using #SCOTUSTermLimits.

This event will be live captioned at americanprogress.org/livecaptioning.

Introductory remarks:
Neera Tanden, President and CEO, Center for American Progress

Featured panelists:
Caroline Fredrickson, Senior Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice
Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Gabe Roth, Executive Director, Fix the Court

Moderator:
Maggie Jo Buchanan, Director of Legal Progress, Center for American Progress

Explore The Series

Photo shows a partial view of the front of the Supreme Court building against a cloudy sky, with the American flag flying in front

The U.S. Supreme Court is in need of reform. Recent ethics scandals and anticonstitutional opinions show that the Supreme Court is operating far outside the framework intended at the nation’s founding. To rein in an out-of-control judiciary, Congress should enact 18-year term limits for justices, along with a binding and enforceable code of ethics as constitutional self-reinforcing principles that will strengthen the court and American democracy as the Constitution intended.

This series highlights how the Supreme Court has fallen so far in the public’s regard, what is at stake if the American people and Congress fail to act, and what reforms are necessary—and constitutional—to bring the high court back into alignment with the Constitution.

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