U.S. Supreme Court
Solutions
The Bottom Line
There are not enough justices on the Supreme Court, especially if justices become more ideological. A small Supreme Court has outsized power and tends to be more unrepresentative and noncollaborative.
If you have any doubt that this is where we are, just take notice that practically every modern-day Supreme Court decision is split right down party lines. Or, worse, look at the partisan warfare that is ignited every time a seat on the high court becomes vacant. These nasty political fights are damaging to our country and only serve to divide us even more than we already are, not to mention that appointing like-minded Supreme Court justices becomes the most important decision(s) a president makes.
This feels dangerous. There are two ways we should deal with this:
END LIFETIME APPOINTMENTS FOR SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.
We should end the life-time appointments that Supreme Court justices now enjoy. The new appointments can be ten years, and the terms should be staggered to ensure that the terms expire fairly across presidential terms. Warning: This is a heavy lift because it requires a constitutional amendment.
EXPAND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT, BUT NOT FOR THE REASONS DEMOCRATS THINK.
The U.S. Supreme Court needs more justices but not, as Democrats claim, to right past wrongs, or to ensure the Court is more “liberal” or “conservative.” In fact, that politically based thinking is exactly the problem.
We should double the number of justices to 18 – then add one justice because we need an uneven number – although a strong case can be made for an even larger number. The additional justices should be phased in gradually to avoid an advantage for any one political party.
This is much easier to do than enacting term limits because the current number of justices was set forth by Congress in 1869. Therefore, Congress can simply pass a law to change the size of the Court.