Supreme Court Commission: Everyone wants Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices

A bipartisan panel comprised of legal scholars prepared and submitted to the White House the final report, which described public support for imposing term limits but not for adding justices.

The current Supreme Court is comprised of 6 conservatives and 3 liberals, three of them having selected during the Trump era. The Commission was unanimous in its support for imposing term limits.

As to whether the Court should be expanded for more seats, this is more split. For example, retired federal judge Nancy Gertner voiced concerns about the Court being effectively packed by one party and remaining unchanged for years if not decades. Constitutional Law expert Laurence Tribe also voiced concerns of the same kind, although he had originally thought the Court need not be expanded.

Of course, there are those that oppose this as well. For example, Thomas B. Griffith, recently retired from U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C., saw no issues with the current make up and argued that partisan politics should not sacrifice the federal judiciary.

Whether the Biden administration would actually take any action on these matters is not yet clear. Reforms were called for during the Obama administration but was unsuccessful due to the Republican-controlled Senate.

Just last week, the liberal members of the Court warned that overturning the long precedence of Roe v. Wade would greatly impact the reputation of the Court and make many Americans distrust the institution, especially given the change would be coming after the Court changed membership.

Either way, majority of Americans agree: the Supreme Court should have term limits.