With the way things are now, most of the Justices won’t take the risk of an ideological opposite taking their place, so they’ll stay until they’re carried out feet-first. The late Chief Justice Rehnquist stayed on the bench in great pain to prevent Clintoon from appointing one of his stooges in his place, and that demonstrated enormous character. In the case of JP Stevens (who is older than Rehnquist) is trending towards 90, and that sorry old liberal fool should’ve retired 15 years ago. Breyer and Buzzy will try to match his longevity.
“In the case of JP Stevens (who is older than Rehnquist) is trending towards 90, and that sorry old liberal fool should’ve retired 15 years ago.”
True, but while Stevens shared the Clinton’s liberalism, he disliked the Clintons personally, regarding them as weasels. He was hoping that Gore would name his replacement.
With longevity increasing, I'd say there's a good case for expanding the court to 11, and imposing 22-year term limits, staggered to produce a vacancy every 2 years. A two-term president would therefore name 4 out of the eleven justices . . . leaving it at nine would make 4 justices too much to give to one POTUS.Term limiting Justices would of course require a constitutional amendment . . .
See, that’s the thing: Rehnquist didn’t.
If he believed this, he would have retired during Bush’s first term.