A Bill wouldn’t be enough. Since open-ended terms for SCOTUS is in the Constitution, changing them would require an Amendment. Not an easy thing to do.
Not necessarily. The current federal court system including SCOTUS was implemented by the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 because Article III of the Constitution actually gives Congress immense power over the structure of the courts. A bill amending or repealing the Judiciary Act wouldn't force the justices to retire from the judiciary itself but rather rotate them off the Supreme Court and into a different circuit.
Congress could also take the opportunity to provide a law defining the "good behavior" clause of Article III Section I and tie that into a new judicial code of conduct/ethics that would empower Congress, the DOJ, and/or any other governing body deemed by Congress to legally review and take action against any federal judge, including SCOTUS justices, who violate those standards with penalties like fines, suspension, removal from the bench, and/or criminal prosecution (which would effectively bypass the Impeachment Clause because the Constitution only says "they shall hold their offices during good behaviour," which doesn't necessitate Impeachment, especially if Congress passes a legal definition for that clause hinging upon judicial conduct).
Yeah. There are other options, though. You could hypothetically get a bill that removes them from court without technically removing them from the bench, which achieves the same goal.
My read of this was more of being a request than being a statement of fact. The request would not work. Packing the bench would work now that the GOP removed the filibuster for SCOTUS appointments.
What's only unconstitutional is if it were a bill forcing them to retire from the judiciary, but that doesn't prevent Congress from passing a law that rotates or reassigns justices and other federal judges onto different circuits. Article III says there shall be one Supreme Court, and other inferior courts as created by Congress, and the all of the current courts including the Supreme Court were established via the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789. Article III did not automatically create the Supreme Court. Congress still had to establish it via legislation, which means, Congress can also alter it via legislation (as they have done in the past).
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u/Infinite-Ad-1055 Aug 29 '26
A Bill wouldn’t be enough. Since open-ended terms for SCOTUS is in the Constitution, changing them would require an Amendment. Not an easy thing to do.