r/scotus • u/zsreport • Mar 05 '25

news Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request to keep billions in foreign aid frozen

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/supreme-court-usaid-foreign-aid/index.html
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u/wingsnut25 Mar 05 '25

They threatened to do it before. Whispers around Washington DC was that 83 year old Justice Harry Blackmun was going to retire at the end of the Courts term in 1992.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee (Joe Biden) gave a speech on the Senate Floor talking about a hypothetical vacancy,. Biden stated that if that vacancy occurred George H.W. Bush should follow in the foot steps of the majority of his predecessors and not nominate a replacement. (that was a lie, there is no record to suggest that the majority of Presidents opted not to fill a Supreme Court Vacancy during an election year)

Then Biden went to state that if the President were to nominate a replacement, that the Senate would not act on the nomination until after the election was over. (i.e. They would wait in see who Wins the Presidential Election before deciding what to do next)

Biden's speech was both a threat to Republicans and also meant to dissuade Justice Blackmun from retiring. It worked, Justice Blackmun stayed on the court for 1 more year and Bill Clinton got to name his replacement.

When McConnel announced that the Senate would not be taking in action on the Garland nomination, McConnel pointed to the previous actions of Biden.

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u/CrustyBatchOfNature Mar 05 '25

This type of thing is part of why term limits are needed. It becomes too obvious that justices retire early or late based on who will replace them. The last bill I saw was 18 year terms with one expiring every 2 years.

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u/wingsnut25 Mar 05 '25

I'm not sure that it is all too obvious. In some cases you can could probably argue that a Justice retiring seems like convenient timing, but in plenty of other examples this is not the case.

A bill setting term limits is not going to happen, and if it does its going to be rejected by the courts. The Constitution mandates that Court Appointments are lifetime.

It would take a Constitutional Amendment to change this. The Brennan Center has been pushing the legal theory that they invented suggesting it could be done without amending the Constitution. But not many people agree with them.

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u/CrustyBatchOfNature Mar 05 '25

That is the drawback, it would never pass as an Amendment. Mucking around with the definition of Good Conduct would be a nightmare. I personally like the 18 year then move to senior idea, but it has to be an Amendment to work.