What if the Supreme Court had had term limits from the beginning?

This analysis by Philip Bump is published by The Washington Post. Here is an excerpt:

In the past half-century, the Supreme Court has never been viewed with as much skepticism as it is now. Gallup polling, stretching back to the ruling in Roe v. Wade, shows that American confidence in the institution is at a low, with 25 percent of Americans expressing that view. That’s largely because of a significant drop in confidence among Democrats, 1 in 8 of whom now say they have confidence in the court.

Unsurprisingly, this decline in confidence has overlapped with calls to reform the court. In a new poll from the Associated Press, for example, two-thirds of Americans indicated support for instituting term limits for Supreme Court justices. It’s an idea backed by 4 in 5 Democrats — and a majority of Republicans.

In its report on the poll, the Associated Press focused in part on concerns about the ages of the justices. It’s certainly fair to question the extent to which elderly jurists largely segmented off from society can effectively reflect the views of the population, should that be the goal. But it is worth remembering that part of the reason leaders in American institutions are trending older is that America itself is trending older as the baby boom continues to shift into retirement age.

Read the full article here.