Feb. 13, 2016
Lee Drutman wrote for Vox about the necessity of term limits for Supreme Court Justices:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wasted no time after Justice Antonin Scalia's unexpected death in saying that the Senate would not confirm a Supreme Court nominee this year. Oy. Things have already gotten ugly, as we all knew they would.
One reason for the nasty politics is that unlike pretty much every other democracy in the world, we here in the US have lifetime appointments for our Supreme Court. Which means that whoever gets appointed could serve for 30 or more years — a tenure that is becoming more and more the norm. Which makes this the most significant appointment in American politics.
And when this appointment meets the bitter and polarized politics of Washington, it means we are about to have a year-long crisis.