Manchin Co-Sponsors Supreme Court Term Limits Legislation

With Donald Trump winning the last election and likely to have several Supreme Court appointments during that term, term limits for Supreme Court justices are a hot topic again.

In fact, Senators Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) and Peter Welch (D-VT) have introduced a new resolution in the Senate on this matter.

If their legislation is successful, it would limit Supreme Court justices to a single term of no more than 18 years.

Won’t Work

Manchin, who is set to retire from the Senate at the end of his term, stated, “The current lifetime appointment structure is broken and fuels polarizing confirmation battles and political posturing that has eroded public confidence in the highest court in our land.

“Our amendment maintains that there shall never be more than nine Justices and would gradually create regular vacancies on the Court, allowing the President to appoint a new Justice every two years with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.”

This has never been an issue until Donald Trump was able to appoint three justices during a single term, one of them to replace a liberal justice.

Welch added, “Setting term limits for Supreme Court Justices will cut down on political gamesmanship, and is commonsense reform supported by a majority of Americans.”

I am not sure Supreme Court term limits are top of mind of all Americans as Welch suggested, but there are those on both sides of the aisle that see the merit of limiting justices.

I don’t really care how long they serve as long as they are mentally competent. I would much prefer some type of mandatory testing at a certain age, but other than that, the system is as it was meant to be by our Founding Fathers.

While we are speaking about term limits, how about adding term limits to both chambers of Congress so sessions don’t look like an episode of “The Walking Dead.”

I think far more Americans would be interested in setting term limits for Senators and Representatives than they are in kicking justices off the court.

Do you think term limits should be required for some of our most influential elected officials?