Talin Desai

Term Limits for the Supreme Court: History, Strategy, and the Politics of Reform

Started June 12, 2025

Abstract or project description

There are compelling reasons to think the Supreme Court should have term limits, but this would require broad public support leading to a constitutional amendment. How might one build public support for changes to the lifetime appointment? Do recent high-profile and politically controversial decisions open the door to changing lifetime tenure?

To answer these questions, this paper will examine historical campaigns to impose term limits on the President, as well as state-level campaigns for term limits on judges, legislators, and governors, drawing lessons from them for a judicial reform movement. Additionally, the paper will examine the current political landscape to determine if recent controversial decisions present an opportunity for reform and why such an opportunity has not been realized in the past decade.