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Life Tenure Reconsidered Summary

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Over the years there has also been many other different scholarly literatures written to discuss the issue of term-limits and whether or not they should be implemented for Supreme Court Justices. Each article gives suggested ideas about the issue and explain about multiple research studies that have analyzed different types of data to see if life tenure is effective or if it diminishes the value of the justice. One article written by Steven Calabresi and James Lindgren called Term Limits for Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered, expresses the belief that the American constitutional rule granting life tenure to Supreme Court Justices is fundamentally flawed and results in justices on the court for a longer period of time. In Nick Tomboulides’ …show more content…

Since the time of the Framers, the United States has experienced major changes in different significant aspects of the economy such as medicine, technology, politics, and social perceptions of judges. According to their research, the average tenure of a Supreme Court Justice has increased significantly since 1971. In the beginning years of the Supreme Court, Justices stayed on the court for an average of seven years, as time went on the average increased to fourteen years, now Justices are averaging almost twenty years on the court. They also analyzed the average age of Justices when leaving office. Between 1971 and 2006, the average age of a Justice when leaving office was seventy-eight years …show more content…

Term Limits, expresses their legal push to help establish term limits for all members of Congress, including Supreme Court Justices. He starts out by talking about an old Supreme Court case called U.S. Term Limits V. Thornton. This was a 1995 Supreme Court case where the court ruled on whether or not states could impose qualifications for prospective members of Congress. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that citizens are not allowed to place term limits on their own members of Congress using state laws. Tomboulides emphasizes a specific statement in the dissent of this case that he believes will help their cause in the future. It states, “State imposition of term limits for congressional service would effect such a fundamental change in the constitutional framework that it must come through a constitutional amendment properly passed under the precedes set forth in Article V.” Currently, the U.S. Term Limits is pursuing a proposition to establish a constitutional amendment that places term limits on all members of Congress, including Supreme Court Justices. This is very similar to the proposal issued by Calabresi and Lindgren’s in their

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