John,

One year after denying millions of women the right to basic healthcare and bodily autonomy formerly guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, this illegitimate and corrupt Supreme Court continues to demolish essential rights and protections with its radical decisions.

At the end of the current session alone, the Court is reshaping the American system of governance, usurping regulatory powers from the administrative branch while providing aid and comfort to insurrectionists.

A handful of decisions just announced at the end of this session include:

• Presidential Immunity: Supported Trump’s claim, shielding him from prosecution for attempting to overturn the 2020 election through lies, fraud, and deadly violence

• Limiting Charges against January 6 rioters: Overturns the convictions of dozens of January 6 rioters -- and may eventually let Trump off the hook -- by narrowly defining obstruction of an official proceeding

• Overturning the Chevron Doctrine: Gives the courts power to eliminate or weaken thousands of regulations established by experts to protect the nation’s food, air, water, drugs, health care, workplace safety, telecommunications, air travel, banking, and more

• Banning sleep in public places: Effectively makes homelessness illegal

• Overturning the bump stock ban: Allows semiautomatic weapons to fire hundreds of bullets per minute like machine guns

Despite the far-right’s stranglehold on the Court since Trump’s three picks, nevertheless the call for judicial reform is bipartisan: Dozens of polls over the last decade have shown 70% support overall for Supreme Court justice term limits, including large majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

Tell Congress to regularize Supreme Court appointments so they will serve limited terms, evenly distributed amongst elected Presidents. Tell Congress to sponsor and pass the Supreme Court TERM Act today!

Under the recently introduced Supreme Court TERM Act, two Justices would be appointed each Presidential term, to serve Actively with an 18-year term limit -- at which time they would enter Senior Justice status, eligible to sit in on an as-needed basis, but no longer regularly serving on the 9-member Court.

The current Supreme Court, divided 6-3 along ideological lines, has become radically political, advancing extreme views that are unrepresentative of most Americans. Having already struck down Roe v. Wade and the Voting Rights Act, conservative justices tell us, marriage equality, IVF, and contraception are next on their agenda.

Add to this Justice Clarence Thomas’ outrageous ethical lapses, and Justice Samuel Alito’s flagrant personal support for the insurrectionists, and we see a Supreme Court in dire need of reform. The Constitution gives each justice a lifetime appointment during “good behavior.” But Congress has the authority to structure the Court -- and to define the justices’ duties.

The Supreme Court TERM Act would establish the status of Senior Justice after 18 years of Active service. Senior Justices would be eligible to hear lower court cases, and to fill any temporary openings on the Supreme Court that could come up between regular appointments.  

The result would be a Supreme Court with nine members that would better reflect the ideological balance of the nation’s elected presidents over the preceding two decades. With new justices added on a regular basis, we might even see the first Asian, Indigenous, and openly LGBTQ+ justices.

Supreme Court term limits is an idea whose time has come! Tell Congress to pass the TERM Act today!

Thank you for working to maintain the balance of powers as envisioned in the Constitution.

- Amanda

Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund