WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson is the lead sponsor of a bill to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices "while preserving constitutional protections for judicial independence in decision making." 

Johnson, D-Stonecrest, on Monday, July 25, introduced the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act to allow a new justice to take the bench every two years and spend 18 years in active service.

“This Supreme Court is increasingly facing a legitimacy crisis,” said Johnson, chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. 

“Five of the six conservative justices on the bench were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, and they are now racing to impose their out-of-touch agenda on the American people, who do not want it," he said. "Term limits are a necessary step toward restoring balance to this radical, unrestrained majority on the court." 

Johnson represents Georgia's 4th Congressional District that includes part of Newton County

He said the Supreme Court TERM Act would:

• Establish terms of 18 years in regular active service for Supreme Court justices, after which justices who retain the office will assume senior status;

• Establish regular appointments of Supreme Court justices in the first and third years following a presidential election as the sole means of Supreme Court appointments;

• Require current justices to assume senior status in order of length of service on the Court as regularly appointed justices receive their commissions;

• Preserve life tenure by ensuring that senior justices retired from regular active service continue to hold the office of Supreme Court justice, including official duties and compensation; and

• Require the Supreme Court justice who most recently assumed senior status to fill in on the Court if the number of justices in regular active service falls below nine.

Cosponsors include Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Karen Bass, D-Calif., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

Nadler said legislation creating 18-year terms for justices was "essential" considering "all the harmful and out-of-touch rulings from the Supreme Court this last year" such as those overturning Roe v. Wade and denying the Environmental Protection Agency's authority in reducing gas emissions at power plants.  

“Otherwise, we will be left with a backwards-looking majority for a generation or more," Nadler said in a statement released by Johnson's office. 

"Instead, under this bill, each president would be entitled to appoint two justices. We would begin to see a Court that better represents this nation and that better reflects the public whose rights it is responsible for protecting,” Nadler said.

Cicilline, who is chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, said, “Instituting term limits for Supreme Court justices will help rebalance the bench and restore the public’s trust in our nation’s highest court."

“We must address the crisis currently facing the Court in terms of its legitimacy and the public’s confidence in it. This legislation is an important step to restoring the Court’s important role in our constitutional system,” he said.

Johnson said the U.S. "is alone among modern constitutional democracies in allowing its high-court justices to serve for decades without term or age limits." 

He said the result is some presidents appointing no justices and others appointing as much as a third of the Court — as former President Donald Trump did in nominating Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.

"Regularizing appointments every two years will ensure a Supreme Court that is more representative of the nation, reflecting the choices of recently elected presidents and senators. Term limits for Supreme Court justices are an essential tool to restoring a constitutional balance to the three branches of the federal government," Johnson said.

"The bill would also preserve judicial independence by ensuring that Supreme Court justices who assume senior status remain fully compensated members of the federal judiciary for life, capable of exercising official duties on and off the bench for as long as they choose," Johnson said in a news release.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is introducing the legislation in the Senate where it is generally believed passage is unlikely considering the body is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and 60 votes are needed for passage.