The Volokh Conspiracy - Supreme Court Term Limits on NPR.--

For a National Public Radio segment on term limits for Supreme Court justices this week, I was interviewed by Margot Adler of NPR's Justice Talking. My segment is available online at the website for the show.

The interview focused mostly on mental and physical decrepitude. The staff of Justice Talking did a terrific job of editing the segment, though in response to a question asking about Justice John Paul Stevens they edited out my very positive comments on Justice Stevens, my favorite justice.

For background, one can read my article with Steve Calabresi published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: "Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered." After documenting the increase in tenure over time, we argue for 18-year terms on the Court, staggered to allow a new appointment every two years.

The best piece on decrepitude on the Court is by Pultizer Prize winning historian, David J. Garrow in the Fall 2000 University of Chicago Law Review: "Mental Decrepitude on the U.S. Supreme Court: The Historical Case for a 28th Amendment." Although Garrow's abstract is here, the full text is available only to those with subscriptions to Westlaw, Lexis, or Heinonline (scroll down to p. 995).

	[Jim Lindgren, October 20, 2007 at 12:29pm] Trackbacks Supreme Court Term Limits on NPR.-- For a National Public Radio segment on term limits for Supreme Court justices this week, I was interviewed by Margot Adler of NPR's Justice Talking. My segment is available online at the website for the show. The interview focused mostly on mental and physical decrepitude. The staff of Justice Talking did a terrific job of editing the segment, though in response to a question asking about Justice John Paul Stevens they edited out my very positive comments on Justice Stevens, my favorite justice. For background, one can read my article with Steve Calabresi published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: "Term Limits for the Supreme Court: Life Tenure Reconsidered." After documenting the increase in tenure over time, we argue for 18-year terms on the Court, staggered to allow a new appointment every two years. The best piece on decrepitude on the Court is by Pultizer Prize winning historian, David J. Garrow in the Fall 2000 University of Chicago Law Review: "Mental Decrepitude on the U.S. Supreme Court: The Historical Case for a 28th Amendment." Although Garrow's abstract is here, the full text is available only to those with subscriptions to Westlaw, Lexis, or Heinonline (scroll down to p. 995).