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28th Amendment Benefits

Decent Essays

The proposal of the twenty-eighth amendment is that no Supreme Court justice shall serve any more than 18 full years as a judge on the Supreme Court. “A term of 18 years is suggested most often because this length would allow presidents to appoint one member every two years (or two every term, which is approximately the historical average) but would not allow them, even if elected to two terms, to appoint a majority of the court.” The constitution does not clearly specify any limit to the number of Supreme Court justices nor the length of their terms. In this proposal for the 28th amendment, not only gives term limits, but also sets a mental competency exam for every fifth year and proposes vetting every second year. The founding fathers did …show more content…

“The framers gave life tenure to federal judges to ensure an independent judiciary, a judiciary that would not bow to the political pressure of the day.” What the framers failed to recognize is that justices would be reluctant to leave their position for persona or political reasons or before mental decline. My 28th amendment will help to solve these problems. When the Supreme Court was created by the founders, they did not specify term limits. In article III section I, it states, “The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.” In this excerpt of the Constitution the wording is very vague. The founders did not anticipate the judges not wanting to step down for the benefit of the country. This 28th amendment sets clear term limits for the Supreme Court Justices. Since the inception of the Supreme Court, most Justices have tried their …show more content…

The most common thought about lifetime tenure is that the Founding Fathers wanted to protect the Justices from political pressure. Justices spend so many years on the court that they are not easily influenced by the current political culture, therefore some argue that term limits are not necessary. “Taken together, the evidence does not support the argument that, measured either by age or length of service, lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court needs to be modified or abolished. Doubtless there are examples of justices who time their departures in just such a fashion, but statistical assessments that sort out the relative impact of the factors that might lead a justice to retire suggest that the justices have retired principally because of ill-health and the availability of pension benefits.” If this quote were true, Chief Justice John Rehnquist, when diagnosed with thyroid cancer and Justice Ginsburg, undergoing surgery for colon cancer, would have most probably retired for these health reasons. “... the Court is a group consisting almost entirely of senior citizens, several of whom have battled serious health problems. Compounding these concerns is the fact that the responsibility for determining when a member of the Court may no longer be fully fit for the job is left to the discretion of the individual justice, who obviously may not be in the best position to render an objective judgment about his or her

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