Summarizing and explaining today's other post, concerning a new Panel of Federal Electors and the Supreme Court.
Millions of Americans are acting under an assumption that lifetime appointment of Supreme Court Justices is somehow necessary for the court to make independent decisions. But they are wrong. The idea of lifetime appointment would apply if they had a short term length with eligibility for reappointment, so of course, we should avoid those things.
Lifetime appointment is an idea that becomes worse as we head into a future of increasing lifespans and accelerating change. The people of the future have a right to govern themselves, and not be held decades behind by dinosaurs of supreme power. For the U.S. to remain a world leader, we need to show the people of the world that we are on the ball, current, enlightened, and not mired in outdated traditions.
The American people, unfortunately, use future Supreme Court appointments as a major criterion for choosing a President, that is, we choose Presidents according to their usefulness as Supreme Court electors. We were supposed to choose presidential Electors who then choose a President, not to use the President as an elector. The intention was for the President to set up the government, with appointment of judges being only one part of his or her expansive and important job.
Perhaps the founders did not anticipate the people's prioritization and politicization of the Supreme Court. Our present Court appointment process adversely affects the quality of our Presidents, who adversely affect the quality of the Court.
Presidents have a habit of appointing to our highest court people of little to no judicial experience. W looked around the room and decided to appoint his own attorney. When she was rejected, he appointed, for Chief Justice, a man with about two years experience. Obama's appointee, Kagan, was also green. This seems reckless to me.
Presidents want their influence on the Court to be long-lasting, so they want to appoint young people. Appointees are frequently in their 50's, so that they might serve for the next 50 years. My hope is that with a term limit we will see OLDER appointees, for their valuable career experience of having other people's lives in their hands, who will retire around a reasonable age of 75 to 80, before dementia hits, rather than 100, 110, who knows how long they can stay alive.
We must separate Court from President.
We must protect our future people from our past judges.
We must encourage the promotion of the best judges, rather than the best-connected 50-year-old lawyers.
A panel of Federal Electors will be chosen by the people, and some by legislatures of larger states, in the third June following every Presidential election. (This amendment only talks about the Supreme Court, but it is conceivable that instead of bogging down the President and Senate with hundreds of appointments they now deal with, the new federal electors could also be used to appoint federal attorneys, or other officials of public interest, such as FBI, EPA, Commander-in-chief...)
The number of electors of each state will be between one and five, based on state population. The five electors of each state with greater than 10% of the national population will cast two votes each. Electors of other states only one vote each.
Federal electors will appoint Supreme Court Alternate Judges, who will be promoted to Justice as soon as a Justice seat is vacated. Unless there is a disaster, the Court would never be short-handed again. It would eliminate the pathetic possibility of partisan politics leaving Justice seats unfilled.
In such an important job, where the vacancies are caused by random retirement and death, it is not reasonable to not have replacements ready in advance.
The sitting Supreme Court Justices will have their terms end according to the schedule laid out in the amendment. The schedule is based on tenure, on setting up somewhat even vacancy intervals, political balance, and a goal term length of fourteen years.
The court would be temporarily reduced to seven Justices in order to speed the retirement of long-serving members, maintain political balance, and to set regular rotation intervals. Future courts will once again have nine Justices.
Neil Gorsuch would become the first Justice subject to the new constitutional term limit of exactly fourteen years. It would be several more years before the firm fourteen-year limit applies to everyone, as one of the two new Justices required to bring the number back up to nine will serve extra years in order to space out the rotation schedule.
The number of alternate judges will be maintained at three. When one retires or is promoted, the electors will appoint a new alternate judge.
After a Chief Justice leaves the Court, the title of Chief Justice will be awarded in a vote among all the sitting Justices, including the alternate judge being promoted. In the case of a tie, the President shall cast a tie-breaking vote.
One thing we need to make sure is included in this plan: The right of an outgoing Panel of Electors to appoint during every minute of their term, so no one can say "you're close to the end of your term, so we might as well block you."
