David Harsanyi on Why the Supreme Court Doesn’t Need Term Limits

Well-known political scientist Norm Ornstein has
come up with a way to deal with our dawdling
government: term
limiting Supreme Court justices. It’s hardly a new idea among
those on the left who believe that a bunch of old codgers are
holding up progress by taking all things too literally.

But this should be about the long game, David Harsanyi argues.
It’s pretty clear that through lifetime appointments, the Founding
Fathers wanted to shield judges from the political pressures of the
day. An excellent byproduct of having ancient, long-serving
justices is that they are far likelier to be impervious to fleeting
populist bugaboos and contemporary preferences.

Justices may be bewildered by technology, but on the bright
side, some of them still believe that protecting free speech is
more vital to a liberal state than sticking it to some plutocratic
oilmen. 

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