Quote:
Originally posted by Captain
Now that we have gotten rid of the exclusion rule and sovereign immunity, what else is wrong with the constitution as currently interpretted? What should the founders have done differently?
I'm not thinking about the current "hot" issues like Roe v. Wade, but of more subtle things like the sovereign immunity issues or 9th amendment issues.
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Lifetime appointments for S. Ct. justices.
Limit them to 18 years. Stagger the terms so every president gets 2 picks (or should). Avoids incentives to appoint young people who stick around forever; prevents people from hanging on forever; gives presidents and senate a fairly frequent opportunity to have some influence on the court's makeup (not at random intervals either). No concern that they'll kowtow to litigants to ensure a post-judging job, since most will be at retirement age anyway.
Also, while we're amending (and we might not need an amendment to do this), I would create a provision that, whenever a justice is recused, the chief judge from one of the circuits (other than the Fed. Cir. and the one from which the case arises) is selected (perhaps by lot) to sit as an acting justice for that case only.
