Life Tenure

Article III judges hold their offices during good behavior, which in practice means for life unless they resign, retire, or are impeached and removed. The framers chose permanent tenure to make judges independent of the officials who appoint them and the voters who elect those officials. Life tenure applies to Supreme Court justices, court of appeals and district judges, and judges of the Court of International Trade, but not to magistrate judges, bankruptcy judges, or judges of Article I courts, who serve fixed terms.

Tenures have grown as life expectancy has risen and presidents have chosen younger nominees. Justices appointed before 1970 served an average of roughly fifteen years, while recent justices have commonly served or are expected to serve more than twenty-five. William O. Douglas served the longest, more than thirty-six years, from 1939 to 1975. Judges may also take senior status once they meet the Rule of 80, continuing to work part-time while opening a seat, and many time their departures to coincide with a President of the party that appointed them.

The United States is unusual in combining life tenure with no mandatory retirement age for its highest court. Nearly every state sets term limits, retention elections, or mandatory retirement ages for its judges. Proposals to give Supreme Court justices staggered eighteen-year terms, so that each President would appoint two, have drawn support across the political spectrum, though scholars disagree whether they could be adopted by statute or would require a constitutional amendment.