For some time I have thought of the possibility that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, frustrated by the Supreme Court’s resistance to the New Deal, introduces a constitutional amendment or law to introduce mandatory retirement at age 80 for federal judges — excluding those already over 80 when the law comes into effect.
I have several questions:
I have several questions:
- if FDR tried to amend the Constitution to make retirement at least of Supreme Court Justices mandatory at age 80 (except where this would constitute an ex post facto law), would the amendment be passed?
- how would Supreme Court history be altered by mandatory retirement at age 80?
- how would lower courts be altered by a requirement to retire (maybe but not necessarily to “senior status”) at age 80?