[Mb-civic] Supreme Court term limits - Jeff Jacoby - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Supreme Court term limits

By Jeff Jacoby  |  September 7, 2005

LESS THAN two months before he died, Chief Justice William Rehnquist 
issued a statement firmly denying the ''rumors of my imminent 
retirement" and announcing that he would remain on the job ''as long as 
my health permits." That July 14 statement included no information about 
his medical condition. It was something he didn't talk about -- not to 
the country and apparently not even to his colleagues.

Justice David Souter told The New York Times he had thought Rehnquist's 
health was improving and was shocked when he died. But he acknowledged 
the ''unconscious anxiety" that had been hanging over the Supreme Court 
since Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last fall and spent 
more than four months undergoing surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. 
''Even after he returned to the court," the Times reported, ''the chief 
justice did not discuss his condition or prognosis with his colleagues."

By all accounts, Rehnquist was a very private man, not given to 
unburdening himself for public consumption. Certainly no reasonable 
person would have wanted to see the reserve of a very sick man 
thoughtlessly violated. But Rehnquist was also a public official, and 
issues of legitimate public concern were riding on his mental and 
physical abilities. Wasn't the nation entitled to know something about 
his medical situation and how it might be affecting the work of the court?

The Constitution grants life tenure to federal judges, and Rehnquist was 
under no legal obligation to step down because of illness -- not even an 
incurable cancer that was visibly robbing him of his strength. But there 
is growing support, both public and academic, for abolishing life tenure 
on the high court, and cases like Rehnquist's are part of the reason 
why. Charles Evans Hughes, chief justice from 1930 to 1941, found it 
''extraordinary how reluctant aged judges are to retire." In the 
intervening 70 years, the problem has only grown worse.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/07/supreme_court_term_limits/
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