With hyper-partisanship and party discipline, perhaps the time has come to resort to simple majorities. There are no provisions for “virtual” filibusters and super-majority rules in the Constitution, and these rules were adopted a half-century ago when “liberal Republican” and “conservative Democrat” were not oxymorons. Another idea might be limiting judgeships in future to a set period: even if it were a single term of 20 years, it would mean that judges and justices would change with the times a little more often. In fairness to those presently in office, and to prevent too sudden a change by forcing retirement on a slew of judges who have been in more than 20 years, it might be necessary to have the term limit apply to only new appointments.
With hyper-partisanship and party discipline, perhaps the time has come to resort to simple majorities. There are no provisions for “virtual” filibusters and super-majority rules in the Constitution, and these rules were adopted a half-century ago when “liberal Republican” and “conservative Democrat” were not oxymorons. Another idea might be limiting judgeships in future to a set period: even if it were a single term of 20 years, it would mean that judges and justices would change with the times a little more often. In fairness to those presently in office, and to prevent too sudden a change by forcing retirement on a slew of judges who have been in more than 20 years, it might be necessary to have the term limit apply to only new appointments.