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By Mandy Taheri
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Three-fourths of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices, with over 67 percent of Republicans in agreement, according to a new Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll.
Why It Matters
The Supreme Court’s nine justices hold lifetime appointments, leaving the bench for retirement or passing. Term limits have long been debated in legal and policy circles, extending beyond the judiciary. Supporters say limits would help the court stay up to the times, while critics argue it could lead to instability.
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The Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority and has ruled in favor of the Trump administration on many key issues, including immigration enforcement and cuts at federal government agencies.
Approval of the Supreme Court has slipped in recent years: Forty-two percent of Americans approve of the Court’s performance, down from 62 percent in 2000, according to Gallup. Trust in the Court has also fallen in recent years, with the lowest recorded by Gallup in 2022 at 47 percent, and Gallup polling has also found that 43 percent of participants think the current Supreme Court is “too conservative.”
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What To Know
The PRRI survey of 5,543 adults nationwide found that 75 percent of Americans believe there should be term limits for U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Along party lines, more Democrats than Republicans support the matter, with 85 percent of Democrats in agreement, 76 percent of independents, and 67 percent of Republicans.
The cohort of participants included 1748 Republicans, 1553 independents, 1800 Democrats, and 442 who identify with other parties. The survey was conducted online between August 15 and September 8 and has a margin of error of 1.79 percentage points.
The high GOP support for term limits is notable during a conservative tilt of the court; however, previous surveys have noted majority support for term limits, such as a May 2024 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey of 1,600 adults, which found 68 percent of participants in favor of term limits for the justices.
The PRRI survey found that the majority of Americans, 55 percent, believe that "the Supreme Court has been too willing to let President Trump expand his power." However, along party lines, only 19 percent of Republicans agree with that sentiment while 86 percent of Democrats do.
The most common proposal for Supreme Court justices' term limits is an 18-year term. President Trump has appointed three justices to the bench during his first term: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
What People Are Saying
Diana Wood, director of the American Law Institute, lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, wrote in an August 2024 article for the Brennan Center for Justice: “Today’s Supreme Court is not the institution the Constitution’s framers thought that they were creating. It risks turning into a place that is out of touch with the outside world, as more and more justices serve 20, 30, or even 40 years. It is a commonplace observation to note that the world is changing at breakneck speed. To the extent that it leaves the justices in the dust — people with little or no personal experience with electronically stored information, with the internet revolution, and with advances in medicine — we have a problem. Now there is artificial intelligence to deal with, with its endless legal complications. Turnover in these circumstances is a good thing. The term limits proposal offers a better balance between stability and growth than the status quo, and its benefits will only increase over time. The time has come to try it.”
Suzanna Sherry and Christopher Sundby, law professors at Vanderbilt University, wrote in an April 2019 SCOTUSblog: “A Supreme Court that welcomes a new justice every two years, and turns over entirely over the course of every 18 years, could wreak havoc on doctrinal stability. Under the current constitutionally mandated system of life tenure, the court changes slowly. Most justices serve at least 20 years and many serve 30 years or more; no new justices joined the court at all between 1994 and 2005. This longevity and stability means that doctrine changes slowly and incrementally. A constantly changing court, on the other hand, might make sudden and radical changes in doctrine.”
Amanda Frost, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said in an August 2024 article: “Term limits seem constitutionally problematic because the Constitution provides that the justices ‘shall hold their offices during good behavior.’ Some argue that the term “office” is capacious enough to permit Congress to require that after 18 years justices stop hearing cases and engage in other judicial duties (administrative duties or sitting on lower courts) because that would not deprive them of their ‘offices.’ But I believe shifting the justices from deciding cases to administrative tasks is at odds with the spirit of the life-tenure provision, and so any change would require a constitutional amendment.”
Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an advisor at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a May press release: “We need a Supreme Court that works for all of us and fulfills its promise of equal justice under law, and the TERM Act would go a long way to modernize the Court."
What Happens Next
Several bills aimed at capping justices' terms have been introduced, although none have moved far enough. In May, Representative Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, introduced the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act, which received over 50 cosponsors.
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