October 16, 2019
Reforming the Supreme Court: ACS Resources
Proposals to alter the structure of the Supreme Court have multiplied in recent years as the judicial nominations process has grown increasingly contentious.
Video: The Possibilities and Perils of Supreme Court Reform (June 2019)
Some claim the Court has never been this politicized and partisan and that the notion that the Justices are anything but political actors effectuating predetermined agendas is naive. Perhaps not surprisingly, we now hear calls for term limits and court-packing. At our 2019 National Convention, a panel of experts discussed: What should be the progressive orientation toward the Court? Is the Court’s legitimacy at stake and, if so, should we care? If we care, can anything be done about it?
- Speakers: Joan Biskupic, Bob Bauer, Aaron Belkin, Aziz Huq, Dahlia Lithwick, Neil Siegel, Ganesh Sitaraman
Blog: Supreme Court Expansion and the Future of Democracy (August 2019)
By Aaron Belkin, director of Take Back the Court and political science professor at San Francisco State University.
Video: Reforming the Court (2018)
On October 25, 2018, ACS and New America hosted a panel discussion about proposals to reform the Supreme Court.
- Speakers: Kimberly Atkins, Robert Bauer, Amanda Frost, Aziz Huq, Ganesh Sitaraman
Issue brief here: Coming to Terms with Term Limits: Fixing the Downward Spiral of Supreme Court Appointments (2017)
By Kermit Roosevelt III, Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Ruth-Helen Vassilas, University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Class of 2018.
In this issue brief, Roosevelt and Vassilas argue that instituting term limits would “mirror[] the practice of the rest of the Western world” and is supported by “law and policy thinkers from across our political spectrum.” Moreover, they contend that term limits could be implemented by statute and would not require a constitutional amendment.