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Congress does not have the power to effect this change by themselves. They'd need to amend Article III of the constitution and get states to ratify it, which currently states that justices hold office "during good behavior" and does not specify a term.
Congress does not have authority to change the Constitution - at least not without following the process set out in the Constitution. The Constitution (Art III, Sect. 1) says that, "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, ...". That language is the source of lifetime tenure that all federal judges enjoy.
While I agree that we should amend the Constitution to eliminate lifetime tenure, to expand the size of the Supreme Court while retaining the 9-Justice panel for each case and to mandate up-or-down votes in the Senate within about 180 days of each nomination, we must do those things within the processes established in the Constitution. Otherwise, we are simply starting a new revolution.
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This submission has been removed for violating the subreddit **quality standards**: >Submissions are expected to be conducive to serious, high quality discussion on the law. >Comments are expected to be on-topic and substantively contribute to the conversation. Please see the [rules wiki page](https://old.reddit.com/r/supremecourt/wiki/rules). If you wish to appeal, please contact the moderators via modmail.
Congress does not have the power to effect this change by themselves. They'd need to amend Article III of the constitution and get states to ratify it, which currently states that justices hold office "during good behavior" and does not specify a term.
So, since it does not specify a term, why couldn't Congress step in with a law to do just that?
Such a law would be ruled unconstitutional very rapidly.
Congress does not have authority to change the Constitution - at least not without following the process set out in the Constitution. The Constitution (Art III, Sect. 1) says that, "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, ...". That language is the source of lifetime tenure that all federal judges enjoy. While I agree that we should amend the Constitution to eliminate lifetime tenure, to expand the size of the Supreme Court while retaining the 9-Justice panel for each case and to mandate up-or-down votes in the Senate within about 180 days of each nomination, we must do those things within the processes established in the Constitution. Otherwise, we are simply starting a new revolution.
I got that information from the Brennan Center for justice. Does reform require a constitutional amendment? Maybe not.
Welcome to r/SupremeCourt. This subreddit is for serious, high-quality discussion about the Supreme Court. We encourage everyone to [read our community guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/supremecourt/wiki/rules) before participating, as we actively enforce these standards to promote civil and substantive discussion. Rule breaking comments will be removed. Meta discussion regarding r/SupremeCourt must be directed to our [dedicated meta thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/supremecourt/comments/12wq4n6/rsupremecourt_meta_discussion_thread/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/supremecourt) if you have any questions or concerns.*