I still prefer my old standby plan of having voters elect the justices, making each circuit a judicial election district composed of several states that would have the justice on the ballot during the November elections, and gerrymandering the hell out of it so we end up with only 3 safe RAT seats and 6-8 strongly GOP leaning seats (depending on whether there are 9 or 11 justices). Shouldn't be hard if you carve up the 9th circuit so it only covers the coastal states.
Granted, the chances of doing all this would take a constitutional amendment and its a long shot, but its a populist proposal and could gain widespread support since its empowering voters, unlike the "abolish the 17th" idiocy. In fact, it would be sort of a '17th amendment for courts" proposal.
