Staff Reports
The Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act is a convoluted piece of legislation that the Democrats are attempting to get through Congress. Critics argue that this bill will compromise the independence of the federal judiciary.
According to The Federalist, this could include stacking the courts and putting individual freedom and the separation of powers in jeopardy.
After a string of victories for conservatives in the Supreme Court, Democrats proposed this act in an effort to create term limits of 18 years for Supreme Court judges. After a term was done, a justice would “assume senior status,” which would be a pseudo-retirement that would substantially lower their workload, hence their influence.
In order to "restore legitimacy and independence to the nation's highest court," the president of the United States will nominate a new justice during the first and third years of his term in order to fill the vacancies that have occurred.
Some people believe that doing so would run counter to the principles that guided the establishment of the Supreme Court, which was conceived of as the "bulwark" of limited government and was designed to serve as a check on both the legislative and executive branches of government.
The Founding Fathers argued that having life tenure for justices on the Supreme Court would sever "all sense of dependence" between the judiciary and politicians who were responsible for their commission. This would allow judges to check government excesses without fear of their lives being threatened.
The TERM Act would be a move against the founding of the Court, with anxiety about their future employment affecting reason and compromising the justices' ability to make decisions that are transparent to the public.
The Act would demote the conservative Justice Clarence Thomas to senior status, so allowing President Biden to choose another leftist activist judge who refuses to define the word "woman" since they "are not a biologist." This judge would be appointed by President Biden.
In addition, the TERM Act would have an effect on presidential elections, transforming them into competitions for control of the Supreme Court.
Candidates for president might, in theory, base their campaigns on the individuals whom they would choose to nominate to the Supreme Court, because the measure guarantees that there will be nominees for the court for each presidential term.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Headline USA.
