Why 18 years?

Post #436,338 by mmoffitt 9/22/20 10:54:30 AM 9/22/20 10:54:30 AM Reply	Why 18 years? I understand you don't want judicial philosophy changing with Presidents, but serving three times as long as a senator seems excessive to me. It's not like we don't have enough lawyers. The year the US Constitution was ratified, White Male life expectancy (because back then, that's all that mattered) was 38 years. The youngest ever justice was 32 when he joined the bench. I'll concede that most justices lived well beyond life expectancy, but there is a compelling argument that the framers didn't think anyone would be on the bench for more than six years or so. A term of ten years is plenty. I certainly wouldn't support any more than that. bcnu, Mikem It's mourning in America again.
Post #436,340 by pwhysall 9/22/20 11:42:23 AM 9/22/20 11:42:23 AM Reply	On 38 years That's a bad number to use. Now take the life expectancy of people who made it out of infancy. Much higher number - 54 for men, 56 for women. That number will, of course, be higher the more money you had.
Post #436,343 by rcareaga 9/22/20 4:00:51 PM 9/22/20 4:00:51 PM Reply	What Peter said Those old “life expectancy” stats reflected both the mortality rate of infants and of their mothers. A male of the economic class from which Supreme Court justices were selected could reasonably expect to reach, say, my present age—and I was born not quite half a year after George VI pegged out. cordially,
Post #436,347 by Another Scott 9/22/20 11:45:22 PM 9/22/20 11:45:22 PM Reply	Yup. Franklin - 84 John Adams - 91 etc. MM - I mentioned 18 because I'd seen it mentioned elsewhere. Someone out there wants to include something like a new justice could only serve the remaining time of the justice they replace (e.g. Thomas couldn't resign at the end of 17.95 years and be replaced by his clone to sit there for a fresh 18 year term). I expect there will be a lot of various proposals talked about with increasing fervor coming in January. Rand - you were right to suspect that Moscow Mitch will keep his minions together. Supposedly he wants a vote as soon as October 28 (according to a story at TheHill today). It'll be interesting how much gravel Schumer can throw in the gears (e.g. the 2 hour rule he invoked today). Cheers, Scott.
Post #436,348 by mmoffitt 9/23/20 8:30:56 AM 9/23/20 8:30:56 AM Reply	This is just a thought experiment, though, isn't it? I don't think any of us expect there to be any changes made with respect to lifetime appointments do we? I certainly don't. I don't expect any immediate (or slowly evolving for that matter) miracles. This is a broken government printing gobs of money to move around so that no one will notice that our broken government sits atop a broken economic system. What remains as true today as when I first uttered it during the 1992 campaign, no nation in the history of the world has survived a debt as large as ours is right now. TBH, back then I wouldn't have thought we could just continue printing money to make up for the failure of Capitalism to this point. It is amazing to me that still not enough people have looked behind the curtain to not burn it all down, but simply acknowledge that it is already burned down. It is quite the spectacle. bcnu, Mikem It's mourning in America again.
Post #436,371 by Ashton 9/24/20 12:38:35 AM 9/24/20 12:38:35 AM Reply	Thus: When?? do other countries wake-up to our ∞ paper-backed specie supply.. Hmm?
Post #436,344 by rcareaga 9/22/20 4:00:56 PM 9/22/20 4:01:36 PM Reply	(ignore; dup) (gone) Edited by rcareaga Sept. 22, 2020, 04:01:36 PM EDT Expand All History

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