[DOWNLOAD] "Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2006
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 538 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION In June 2005, at the end of its October 2004 Term, the U.S. Supreme Court's nine members had served together for almost eleven years, longer than any other group of nine Justices in the nation's history. (1) Although the average tenure of a Supreme Court Justice from 1789 through 1970 was 14.9 years, for those Justices who have retired since 1970, the average tenure has jumped to 26.1 years. Moreover, before the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist in September 2005 and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's announcement in July 2005 of her retirement that eventually took effect on January 31, 2006, five of the nine Justices had served on the Court for more than seventeen years, and three of those had served for more than twenty-three years. (2) The other four Justices had each already spent between ten and fourteen years on the Court. At the same time, four of these nine Justices were seventy years of age or older, and only one was under sixty-five--once the traditional retirement age in business. (3) Because of the long tenure of these members of the Court, there were no vacancies on the high Court from 1994 to the middle of 2005. (4)