Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
Honestly, I don’t know for certain what the effective difference would be between 8-year terms vs. 20-year terms, but I could see how having terms that are too short might result in disruptive chaos. It takes lawsuits years to move up through the court system to reach SCOTUS. If justices had 8-year terms, that would likely mean we’re appointing at least one new justice every year. I could see that making it very difficult for lawyers, plaintiffs, etc, to make long-term legal plans with SCOTUS in mind, because you never know what the court is actually going to look like when your case finally gets there. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, maybe it is; probably has pros and cons to it. I don’t think I have the legal experience to really give an informed opinion about what length of term is best for a SCOTUS judge, but I can see there potentially being serious issues with them being too short.