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A Modest Proposal To Reform the Supreme Court [1]

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Date: 2022-07-11

There are 13 appellate courts in the Federal system. There would be 13 justices on the Supreme Court, one drawn from each of the 13 appellate courts. Justices would serve a term of 9 years. Each judge stepping up to SCOTUS would have been the most senior judge from that appellate court.

The appellate courts would be divided into three classes; two classes of four courts each, and one class of five courts. Every three years, four (or five) of the justices would come to the end of their term of service and either retire or return to the appellate bench where they previously served.

Every three years, the most senior judge, determined by years of Federal court service, becomes the Chief Justice. But that person must have already served at least three years on the Supreme Court.

This system would be implemented by having four additional judges step up to SCOTUS, increasing the number of justices from 9 to 13. Three years later, four more judges would step up, and the four longest serving justices would retire or step down to an appellate court to replace them.

Under this system there would be no Presidential appointments to SCOTUS. Replacements would be made at the appellate court level. These are also Presidential appointments and subject to Senate confirmation. But they are much less likely to be contentious. Given retirements, resignations, and deaths at the appellate level, it would be virtually impossible to pack the court; It would be difficult to predict who might serve on SCOTUS. But those who would serve would be drawn from the most experienced and seasoned judges in the Federal court system.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/11/2109654/-A-Modest-Proposal-To-Reform-the-Supreme-Court

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