Is the U.S. Supreme Court Too Powerful?

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A recent New York Times article (via Yahoo) titled A Powerful Court asks the question if the U.S. Supreme Court is too powerful and should the justices’ time on the bench be limited with a term of years or a specific retirement age.  U.S. Supreme Court justices have lifetime appointments to the bench.  However, many other countries including many common law countries have some limitation on how long a judge may serve.  High courts in such countries as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Israel must retire at 70. Federal judges in Canada retire at age 75. The Philippines, a former U.S. territory. requires judges to retire at 70. Many U.S. state judiciaries have similar limits.

To assist researchers in finding out more on the topic, we have compiled a short non-exhaustive bibliography:

  1. Retiring Life Tenure: On Term Limits and Regular Appointments at the Supreme Court, by Tyler Cooper, Amanda Dworkin, Dylan Hosmer-Quint, and Amanda Pescovitz, 42 Cardozo L. Rev. 2763 (2021).
  2. Age and Tenure of the Justices and Productivity of the US Supreme Court: Are Term Limits Necessary?, by Joshua C. Teitelbaum, 34 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 161 (2006).
  3. The Unintended Consequences of Term Limits for Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: Lessons From a Comparative Study of the Indian Supreme Court, by Sital Kalantry, 30 Tul. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 43 (2022).
  4. The Policy Consequences of Term Limits on the U.S. Supreme Court, by Ryan C. Black and Amanda C. Bryan, 42 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 821 (2016).
  5. Ghosts of the Supreme Court: A Historical and Jurisdictional Analysis Justifying a Constitutional Amendment for Compulsory Medical Retirement, by Kristen E. Hahn, 54 Ind. L. Rev. 247 (2021).
  6. Designing Supreme Court Term Limits, by Shelby A. Mars, 13 Seton Hall Circuit Rev. 203 (2017).
  7. Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered, by James Lindgren, 29 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 769 (2006).
  8. Why Justices Retire, by David Yalof, 88 Judicature 42 (2004).
  9. Reforming the Court : Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices, edited by Roger C. Cramton and Paul D. Carrington, (2006) (link to catalog).
  10. Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of The United States, Final Report (2021).
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