Why Supreme Court justices serve longer
John Sides brings some political science to the question of whether Supreme Court justices should have fixed, rather than lifelong, terms. By now, you've likely heard that the average justice's tenure has increased from 15 years to 26 years. Here's why:
First, any changes in the tenure of justices over time is not due to an increase in the number of justices serving long terms. There have always been those justices on the Court. Instead, there has been a decrease in the number of short-term justices, as the title of the article suggests. This is what a measure like “average tenure” conceals.[...]
Second, justices tend to serve short terms because of illness and death in many cases but, in others, because of higher ambition (John Jay), dissatisfaction with the job (Jay again, also Minton), and occasionally scandal (Fortas).
Third, and consequently, the disappearance of the short-term justice is not just a function of better medical treatments and longer lifespans. (There were plenty of people living long lives and serving long terms on the Court, even in the early years of the United States.) It is also a function of this simple fact: serving on the Court is a much better job these days.
More at the link. The nickel version is that long-serving justices aren't new. It's the disappearance of short-serving justices that's new. And the reason for that is not just advances in lifespan, but advances in the cushiness and prestige of the court.
August 11, 2010; 9:32 AM ET
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