Amendment 28
- The Supreme Court shall go into session on the first Monday in August and shall end session on the last Friday in May.
- The Supreme Court shall consist of nine justices, each of whom shall serve a term of eighteen years. The terms shall begin on the start of the session on the odd numbered years.
- The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall be the justice with the longest tenure on the Supreme Court.
- The President shall nominate the new justices, and the Senate will have thirty days to review the nomination, and has the right to deny the nomination by a 3/5 vote.
- In the case of the death or disability of a judge, the President shall nominate the replacement for the duration of the vacated term. The Senate shall have thirty days to review the nomination, and has the right to deny the nomination of the replacement judge by a majority vote.
- The Justices who are on the court at the time of the ratification of this amendment shall be assigned partial terms, such that the most senior justice shall receive the term first to expire, the second most senior justice shall receive the term that expires two years after, and so on.
- Should a vacancy exist on the court at the time of ratification, that seat shall be treated as if it were vacated on the first day after ratification, and the replacement shall be filling the term of the prior judge, per the procedure in Section 5.
Effects:
Each presidential term gets two scheduled Supreme Court nominations. There’s no “ermahgod he/she might get to pick so many judges”, it’s a known quantity now.
They’re no longer lifetime appointments. Eighteen years, yes, which is about the historical average, but not longer than that.
The President gets a measure of deference on his/her picks for regular appointments - but if he/she picks some clown, a 3/5 vote (60 senators) can say “Heck no, you can’t put Judge Judy/Judge Dredd/Judge Reinhold/Simon Cowell on the Supreme Court!”
On replacement picks (i.e. Supreme Court judge dies mid-term), since that’s an “extra” pick, those the President has to pick a little more carefully, as it only requires a 51 vote majority to deny.
In this scenario, if this were hypothetically invoked today (Sept 9, 2016)…
According to section 7, Justice Scalia’s seat (appointed 1986) would have been a term till May ‘17. The Senate would be on a 30 day clock on Merrick Garland for the vacancy. If appointed, he would serve till May ‘17, and then the new President would select a permanent replacement for the 2017–2035 term.
Justice Kennedy (appointed 1988) would get a term till May ‘19. As the most senior, he would be Chief Justice of the United States. He would be 83 at the end of his term, and would have served 31 years.
Thomas (1991) would get a term till May ’21. Age 73 at end of term. 30 years.
Ginsburg (1993) would get a term till May ‘23. Age 90 at end of term. 30 years.
Breyer (1994) would get a term till May ‘25. Age 87 at end of term. 31 years.
Roberts (2005) would get a term till May ‘27. Age 72 at end of term. 22 years.
Alito (2006) would get a term till May ‘29. Age 79 at end of term. 23 years.
Sotomayor (2009) would get a term till May ‘31. Age 77 at end of term. 22 years.
Kagan (2010) would get a term till May ‘33. Age 83 at end of term. 23 years.
The president elected in ’16 would replace Garland and Kennedy.
The president elected in ’20 would replace Thomas and Ginsburg.
The president elected in ’24 would replace Breyer and Roberts.
The president elected in ’28 would replace Alito and Sotomayor.
Read other answers by Robert Pratt on Quora:
- What would you do if you could become Donald Trump for 24 hours, controlling all of his actions?
- Given the opportunity, would you cancel the US election and decide by yourself who would be the next President?
- If you could replace one of the umpteen US presidential debates with a board game, which board game would you choose?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2inwkgP
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