Recent polling released by NBC News shows that only 22% of Americans have confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court. In the wake of that growing unpopularity, a new proposal in Congress would amend the Constitution to impose 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices. Democratic Rep. Johnny Olszewski of Maryland joins "The Takeout" to discuss.
If became effective immediately, by the end of his term Trump would have installed 8 of the 9 justices on the Court, as Sotamayor and Kagan were both first-term Obama appointees.
The last time this was discussed, the idea was to cycle them out every 2 years, starting with the longest-serving (Thomas) through the newest (Jackson).
That would result in no change to the current partisan makeup during Trump’s term. If it were to take effect on January 1, he would get to change out Thomas and Roberts, with the next President getting Alito and Sotamayor in their first term, and Kagan and Gorsuch in their second.
It would actually be ideal to wait until the next President (hopefully a Dem) if the goal was to restore balance, since the first 3 replacements seats were all Republican-appointed.
Though what would actually happen is the Thomas, Alito, and Roberts would all resign and be replaced by new Republicans right before the law took effect so that the longest-remaining terms were all Republican-appointed when the law takes effect.
OF course. Timing is everything