Lifetime appointments and limitless terms in government are devastating for democracy
This is Chuck Grassley, senior senator from Iowa. He’s about 150 years old and a quick glance at his appearance leaves serious doubt as to whether he’s actually still alive or just a dressed-up, warmed-over corpse. He’s been taking up valuable space in the U.S. Senate since 1981. Unfortunately, he’s the current Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gives him oversized clout in the outcome of the Brett Kavanaugh disgrace.
Why does he keep getting elected over and over again in a swing state like Iowa? Good question. He’s undoubtedly a gifted politician, but his protracted tenure is also due at least in part to his incumbency. Incumbents, particularly long-time ones like him, generally wield far more power than their challengers — name recognition and money being the two most obvious forms of that.
But the point is this: Grassley should have been gone from the Senate decades ago. So should other fossils who “serve” (I use that term advisedly) alongside him — like the insufferable Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has polluted the upper chamber of Congress since 1985; Orrin Hatch of Utah, who has done the same since 1977; and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, an incomparably less offensive senator whose arrival in 1975 nevertheless means he should have moved on dozens of years ago. (If you listen to Leahy talk, he too sounds a bit like a voice from the other side of the grave.)
These are all geriatric white men, a minority demographic representing a minority segment of the population that is in no way representative of America as a whole. There’s no reason they should be allowed to become permanent fixtures in the Senate until their natural deaths.
This is Clarence Thomas. He’s the most senior Supreme Court justice, a dead weight there since 1991. His judicial philosophy and constitutional interpretation ought to be an affront to anyone concerned about human dignity or democratic integrity. In a case that bears depressing similarities to current circumstances, he was accused following his confirmation hearings of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, a former subordinate of Thomas’ at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
He was still confirmed in a 52–48 vote by the U.S. Senate in October of that year. Nearly three decades later, he still has a cushy lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. He currently receives more than $255,000 per year in compensation for this enviable role, along with a lavish pension and benefits. Best of all for him, there’s almost zero chance he’ll ever again be held accountable by anyone for anything — whether it’s his personal indiscretions, his extreme views, or his documented indifference to his job. Thomas clearly recognizes this and exploits it:
…These days, Thomas only reclines; his leather chair is pitched so that he can stare at the ceiling, which he does at length. He strokes his chin. His eyelids look heavy. Every schoolteacher knows this look. It’s called “not paying attention.”
…In question-and-answer sessions at law schools, Thomas has said that his colleagues talk too much, that he wants to let the lawyers say their piece, and that the briefs tell him all he needs to know. But this — as his colleagues’ ability to provoke revealing exchanges demonstrates — is nonsense. Thomas is simply not doing his job.
At least by this account, Clarence Thomas gets paid handsomely by the taxpayers to do nothing while voting on judicial rulings that can and do change the course of American society for generations, possibly forever. He faces no annual performance reviews, no re-election campaigns, no votes of confidence by citizens or any legislative body. Never in U.S. history has a Supreme Court justice been both impeached and removed from the bench. In today’s tribal political environment, the possibility of it happening anytime soon is nearly nonexistent.
Thomas and his fellow justices can basically do whatever they want without fear of consequence. So could Kavanaugh if he’s confirmed — despite his nomination by an illegitimate occupant of the executive branch, the credible allegations of sexual assault made against him, and his obvious evasion and mendacity in attempting to refute these allegations. (Worth noting: Kavanaugh already has a lifetime appointment as a U.S. Circuit Judge; to that end, even if he isn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court, he’s already immune from accountability in his current job.)
This is precisely why the GOP handling of this situation — and the fact that Kavanaugh is still even being considered — is so appalling.
Virtually every disastrous flaw in America’s system and standards of governance has painfully resurfaced in the most devastating of ways over the past several years, but this one has to be near the top of the list.
No one should serve more than two terms in the Senate; no one should serve more than three in the House. We should have a completely new Congress at least every 12 years.
No judge should simply get to live and die on the Supreme Court or any lower court; term limits should apply here just like every other branch of government, and Supreme Court justices in particular should be subject to regular votes of confidence by the Senate.
In fact, term limits should be enforced at every level and branch of government — from the executive to the legislative and judicial, from the federal level all the way down to state and local. The notion that any individual should be able to indefinitely occupy such consequential, powerful positions of public trust — even when there are regularly good reasons to believe they have betrayed that trust — is one of the stupidest and most dangerous shortcomings in the construction of our republic.
Given current events, I’m afraid we’re witnessing exactly why in real time.
