Term Limits for
Federal Judges
Jamal Greene is a professor of law at Columbia Law School and a
former clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens.
It has become common, even this soon, to describe the health care
decision as being central to Chief Justice John Roberts’s legacy at the
Supreme Court. But that assessment may be premature. If the chief justice
were to retire at the same age as the justice I clerked for, John Paul
Stevens, he would be on the court until the year 2045. Will we — those of
us still around, that is — even remember the health care decision then?
The drafters of the 1787
Constitution had good reasons for
giving life tenure to federal judges
-- reasons that are not valid
today.
In a democracy, no one person should wield so much power for so
long. Article III of the Constitution provides that federal judges “shall hold
their offices during good behavior.” In practice this language means they
serve for life absent voluntary retirement or impeachment. Were we to
draft the Constitution today, we would be wise to reconsider this
provision.
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