{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-whitehouse-blumenthal-padilla-introduce-new-supreme-court-term-limit-bill", "Booker, Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Padilla Introduce New Supreme Court Term Limit Bill", "2023-10-19", "2023", "2023-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced new legislation, the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act, to establish 18-year term limits and regularized appointments for Supreme Court justices. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) also cosponsored the legislation.\n\nUnder the senators\u2019 legislation, a new justice would take the bench every two years and spend 18 years participating in all Supreme Court cases, after which the justice would be limited to hearing a small number of constitutionally required cases.\n\n\u201cThe Supreme Court is facing a crisis of legitimacy that is exacerbated by radical decisions at odds with established legal precedent, ethical lapses of sitting justices, and politicization of the confirmation process,\u201d said Senator Booker. \u201cThis crisis has eroded faith and confidence in our nation\u2019s highest court. Fundamental reform is necessary to address this crisis and restore trust in the institution. Setting term limits for Supreme Court justices will restore accountability and depoliticize the confirmation process, and term limits are a commonsense change that an overwhelming majority of Americans support. I\u2019m proud to stand with my colleagues to champion this effort.\u201d\n\n\u201cAn organized scheme by right-wing special interests to capture and control the Supreme Court, aided by gobs of billionaire dark money flowing through the confirmation process and judicial lobbying, has resulted in an unaccountable Court out of step with the American people. Term limits and biennial appointments would make the Court more representative of the public and lower the stakes of each justice\u2019s appointment, while preserving constitutional protections for judicial independence,\u201d said Senator Whitehouse, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee. \u201cAs Congress considers multiple options to restore the integrity of this scandal-plagued Court, our term limits bill should be front and center as a potential solution.\u201d\n\n\u201cTerm limits will help restore credibility and trust to our nation\u2019s highest court. This proposal is simple and fair: each President, elected by the American people, will appoint two Supreme Court justices for each term. Our bill strips out the toxic politics, partisan obstruction, and retirement gamesmanship that have eroded public trust, not just in the Supreme Court, but in our entire system of justice. Detached from the public and more politicized than ever, the Supreme Court will continue to face a crisis of legitimacy without this kind of fundamental reform,\u201d said Senator Blumenthal.\n\n\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be controversial to say that the American people deserve a Supreme Court insulated from politics. But when every confirmation turns into an all-out partisan battle, or when one administration alone can overturn a lifetime of precedent, it\u2019s clear: the Court has lost its way,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cBy imposing commonsense term limits, we can lower the temperature on political brinksmanship and start to restore trust in the highest court in our land.\u201d\n\nThe Constitution requires that Supreme Court justices hear a small number of cases under the Court\u2019s \u201coriginal jurisdiction.\u201d These cases include a narrow category of disputes between states or foreign officials in which the Court is the first and only venue where the case is heard. All justices would continue to hear original jurisdiction cases under the Act.\n\nThe vast majority of the cases the Court hears are brought under the Court\u2019s \u201cappellate jurisdiction\u201d\u2014cases decided by lower courts that are appealed to the Supreme Court. These include major cases like Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, Shelby County v. Holder, and Citizens United v. FEC.\n\nThe Constitution makes clear that the Supreme Court\u2019s \u201cappellate jurisdiction\u201d is subject to any \u201cExceptions\u201d or \u201cRegulations as the Congress shall make.\u201d Congress has long used this authority to adjust the Supreme Court\u2019s jurisdiction.\n\nUnder the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act, only the nine most recently appointed justices would sit for appellate jurisdiction cases. The justices who no longer hear appellate jurisdiction cases would retain the authority to hear original jurisdiction cases and to exercise all other powers of the office. If one of the justices who regularly hears appellate jurisdiction cases has a conflict of interest or is otherwise unavailable to hear a case, another justice who hears only original jurisdiction cases may fill in.\n\nThe legislation also creates regular appointments of Supreme Court justices every two years by requiring the president, within the first 120 days of the first and third years of the president\u2019s term, to appoint one Supreme Court justice, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.\n\nThe legislation is endorsed by the following organizations: The Brennan Center for Justice, Public Citizen, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Alliance for Justice, End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund, Demand Justice, Newtown Action Alliance, True North Research, and Accountable.US.\n\n\u201cPublic trust in the Supreme Court has fallen to the lowest level recorded. Term limits would help restore trust. They are rooted in a core American value: no one should have too much public power for this long. Americans of all views support Supreme Court term limits, and members of Congress from both parties should work to make Supreme Court term limits a reality,\u201d said Michael Waldman, President and CEO, Brennan Center for Justice.\n\n\u201cThe Founders never envisioned the courts to serve much more than an administrative purpose. But the Supreme Court has now evolved into the most powerful branch of government, dictating what is and is not constitutional, with no oversight and no popular reprieve. Political partisans who cannot win at the polls have tapped into this and stacked the unaccountable court in their favor. Public Citizen wholly endorses this legislation that would help restore the balance of power between the three branches of government,\u201d said Craig Holman, Ph.D., Public Citizen.\n\n\u201cSerious and repeated allegations of ethical misconduct at the Supreme Court have undermined public faith in the judiciary. This self-inflicted crisis has led the Court to its lowest approval rating since Gallup started polling the question, raising serious concerns as to if the Supreme Court\u2019s credibility can survive without meaningful reform,\u201d said Debra Perlin, Policy Director at CREW. \u201cThe Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act of 2023 is a strong response to this crisis. It uses the Court\u2019s jurisdiction to create term limits for Supreme Court justices and permits those justices whose terms have ended to retain their seats in a senior status position. This legislation could help both to end partisan manipulation of the Court\u2019s composition and to reduce ethics problems among justices. CREW commends Sens. Whitehouse, Booker, Blumenthal, and Padilla for continuing to lead the charge on the need to address Supreme Court ethics and introducing this crucial piece of legislation.\u201d\n\n\u201cSupreme Court justices hold too much power for too long. A single 18-year term limit is a reasonable and necessary step to address this central problem with an unaccountable court. This legislation could also help reduce the incentive to play politics with the court by ending the unpredictable and lengthy terms that justices presently enjoy. We applaud Senators Whitehouse, Booker, Blumenthal, Padilla, Hirono, Merkley, Welch, and Schatz for introducing this sensible bill to limit Supreme Court terms \u2013 a solution that the vast majority of the American public supports. This is an idea whose time has come,\u201d said Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at POGO.\n\n\u201cThe Court is more politicized than ever,\u201d said Rakim Brooks, president of Alliance for Justice. \u201cJustices enjoy lavish rewards from conservative billionaires and yet we\u2019re supposed to pretend their decisions are neutral and in the public interest. Term limits are a necessary corrective to this sad state. The founders never intended that judges would serve until their dying breath. If they saw this bunch, I\u2019m sure they\u2019d scream, \u2018Term Limits Now!\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Supreme Court is in a state of crisis\u2014without common sense reform, the court will continue to work against the American people and undermine our democracy,\u201d said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United // Let America Vote Action Fund. \u201cLimiting justices\u2019 time on the bench is a necessary step in bringing about accountability and rebuilding Americans\u2019 confidence in the Supreme Court. We\u2019re grateful for Senators Whitehouse, Booker, Blumenthal, and Padilla\u2019s continued leadership in the fight to reform the Supreme Court.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis change is vital to restoring public confidence in the independence of the Court. I hope it will also lead to the selection of justices who have more experience demonstrating their ability to be fair as a judge rather than demonstrating to Leonard Leo that they are young ideologues aligned with his extreme agenda to limit our freedoms and reverse important precedents,\u201d said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of True North Research.\n\n\u201cThe Supreme Court is facing a serious legitimacy crisis. Justices\u2019 countless ethics violations \u2014 from undisclosed lavish gifts to influence-peddling in elite circles \u2014 have caused public trust in the Court to plummet to record lows. The Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act is a necessary step forward in restoring integrity and credibility to our high court. Accountable.US is proud to support Senators Whitehouse, Booker, Blumenthal and Padilla\u2019s critical legislation to ensure that our Supreme Court answers to everyday Americans, not billionaire buddies,\u201d said Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone.\n\nAmericans\u2019 rapidly declining trust and approval in the Supreme Court is the result of an effort by far-right billionaires and special interests to capture and control the Court. The justices selected and ushered onto the Court by these special interests have repeatedly greenlighted donor-friendly policies, reshaping American life in ways that are out of step with the American people. The cozy relationship between right-wing justices and Republican billionaire donors has been exposed by a series of explosive reports from ProPublica, The New York Times, Politico, and other media organizations on the ethics-free zone around the Court. The Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act is an effort to depoliticize the appointment of Supreme Court justices and ensure the Court is more accountable to the American people.\n\nThe United States is one of just five countries with life tenure for its highest court. The American people strongly favor making the Supreme Court more representative of and accountable to the public. Recent polling shows that two-thirds of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices. There is also widespread support for de-politicizing the Supreme Court confirmation process, which is worsened when some presidents can appoint multiple justices while others appoint none.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:49:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-whitehouse-blumenthal-padilla-introduce-new-supreme-court-term-limit-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2313059996813536, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}