Quote:
Originally Posted by JPhillips
At the executive level I'd like it to be more openly political. The idea that picking justices isn't an overtly political process is silly. It is possibly the most influential set of decisions a president can make and should be more openly discussed in the campaign process IMO.
If terms limits were ever enacted I'd like to stagger them so there were two every four years. A single president could have a huge influence on the court, but could never replace a majority and each election would have the same consequences regarding the court. Of course I didn't check the math to see if that would work.
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With nine justices, you'd have that one left over that might make things weird.
But even leaving that aside, each election wouldn't have the same consequences - if a two-termer seats four Justices, and successfully seats four Justices who toe his line ideologically on the "key" issues, his successor, particularly if that successor is his vice president or otherwise from his party, is now in the position of solidifying "control" of the court.
Individually, yes, the same consequences are at stake, but the SCOTUS doesn't exist in a vacuum - there are cumulative consequences under a scenario like that. If you have a bunch of one-termers, that's one thing, but there just haven't been all that many of those in recent history.
In terms of dudes who were elected to the post, rather than ascending to it for other reasons, Bush I, Carter, and then you have to go back to Hoover to find a guy who served a single term for normal electoral reasons. The majority of the rest have finished their predecessors' terms and then either served a single elected term of their own or gone home after that first term is complete. Everything in our country's history suggests that the White House just isn't likely to change hands every four years.
Again, that's not to say that your idea wouldn't work - only that if its intended goal is the depoliticization of the Court, it wouldn't have the effect you're going for.