Nearly 67 Percent of All Americans Favor Term Limits for the Supreme Court

The 2020 Election was a perfect example of why we have a general election every four years and midterms in between. If the American people are unhappy with their president, or members of Congress, they can remove them from Washington and find a better woman or man to serve them. At least 81 million voters expressed their displeasure with Donald Trump in 2020, and if President Biden should fail the majority, he can be removed in 2024.

A term in the Senate lasts for six years, with one-third of the 100 men and women up for reelection every two years. All 435 members of the House of Representatives are chosen every two years.

So, does it make sense that justices on the Supreme Court are appointed for life? We should be able to remove a justice who opposes the will of the people and the meaning of the Constitution. Currently, our country is stuck with The Six Bad Actors, who are overturning advancements made over the last sixty years as fast as they can. We, the people, cannot do anything about this travesty.

The delegates at the Constitutional Convention between 1787 and 1789 had their reasons. However, their ideal has failed completely in the 21st century. They overestimated the patriotism and intelligence of mankind in the distant future.

A summation of their reasoning 233 years ago:

Members of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President subject to the approval of the Senate. To ensure an independent Judiciary and to protect judges from partisan pressures, the Constitution provides that judges serve during “good Behavior,” which has generally meant life terms.

In 2022, the Court was heavily biased and was placed in its positions for purely political reasons. It is reasonable to demand term limits if the basic premise for a lifetime appointment is no longer applicable. Let’s use the example of the last of three justices confirmed by Trump’s senate just prior to the election of 2020, Amy Coney Barrett.

Barret is just 50 years old. Her very confirmation to the Court is an infraction of the First Amendment. She is a Catholic and a member of a lay Christian group that is very extreme, calling themselves “People of Praise.”

It is a distinct possibility that our country will be forced to fight against her religious priorities for the next 40 years. That is unforgivable. There should be a way to remove her asap.

However, the only way to remove a justice from the Supreme Court is through the impeachment process. This only happened once in 1806. Samuel Chase was impeached but acquitted in the senate.

All three branches of our government were intended to be “servants of the people.” With lifetime appointments, this Court has chosen to rule over us.

This is an untenable situation. For example, over 60 percent of all Americans rejected the idea of overturning Roe v Wade, a nearly 50-year-old decision by a previous Court in 1973. The Six Bad Actors ignored the American people and served the extremists in their political party.

After Franklin Delano Roosevelt remained in office for 12 years, from 1933 until 1945, Congress decided to set term limits for the executive branch. They should have completed what a good idea was and placed term limits on themselves and the Court.

Both the legislative and judicial branches have proven this old adage to be 100 percent accurate. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Op-ed by James Turnage, Novelist

Sources:

Daily KOS: Extremist Supreme Court majority succeeds in unifying most Americans against it in one term; by Kerry Eleveld
WGBH News: Why Did The Framers Give Lifetime Tenure to Supreme Court Justices?

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