Leave SCOTUS Alone!

Matt Yglesias supports a push for Supreme Court term limits. Read:

A new justice would be picked, on schedule, ever two years. This would eliminate the risk of what happened during the Carter administration when nobody died or retired and consequently by 1992 all the justices had been selected by Republicans. It would also formalize the rhetoric around the idea that “elections have consequences” by specifying in advance what those consequences are.

I'm not a fan of this idea. I'm highly inclined to leave the SCOTUS exactly as it is. Yes, there is the fear that no one will die or retire during one administration or another, but so what? The ultimate problem of our Supreme Court is that every president thinks he should have a chance to leave his mark. Well, no, that's not the function of the Court. The Court should not be the instrument of the executive branch. Yglesias thinks that appointments every two years will make SCOTUS fights less contentious. That is absolutely false. SCOTUS picks are obviously one the more important prerogatives of the executive. At the moment, the Senate plays a relatively small part in the whole process. Generally the President's picks are confirmed. Imagine the President making biannual appointments. The Senate's role would continue to get larger. With two opposing parties in charge of either branch, SCOTUS fights would get worse and worse.

This idea would not fix anything and would probably make certain things worse. The SCOTUS is not a branch to be tinkered with. It's too powerful, too steeped in tradition to pack it with more justices or establish term limits. The term of a justice is up to him or her. When he or she thinks she can no longer perform his or her duties as a justice, then he or she should step down. Or, that justice can die. Don' screw with an institution that functions properly.