The United States Constitution created three unique and distinct branches of the federal government: legislative, judicial, and executive. This blog discusses the Supreme Court.
There are currently nine members of the Supreme Court. There is one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. When a vacancy occurs on the Court, the President of the United States selects a nominee. The nominee is then referred to the Senate who then vets the nominee, and then votes on the nominee. While the intent was for the Court to remain politically unaffiliated or neutral, that is no longer the case. While the members of the Court are not labeled per se as Republican or Democrat, they are appointed by a Republican or Democratic President and then voted upon by either a Republican or Democratically controlled Senate.
Members of the court are now labeled as either liberal or conservative. Once a nominee is approved and joins the Court, they have a lifetime appointment. They can voluntarily resign, or on very rare occasions they can be impeached. Section 1 Article 3 of the Constitution outlines the process for the impeachment of a member of the Supreme Court. So far in our history, there has never been a successful impeachment of a member of the Court.
Recent decisions and actions by the court have caused a chain reaction discussion about rescinding the lifetime appointments. The Court functioned for a considerable number of years without an ethics policy. Finally, one was developed, but it really has no enforcement authority for ethical violations by judges. Chief Justice Roberts was invited by Congress to speak before them about ethics and denied the invitation. Associate Judges Thomas and Alito have been accused of violating the acceptance of monetary or other substantial gifts from private individuals.
Some have suggested ending the lifetime appointments and replacing them with term-limited appointments.
Question: Should Supreme Court Justices continue to receive lifetime appointments to the court? Please answer yes or no and explain your answer.
