Supremely Broken Process...
When people hear the word SUPREME, many visualize superior, the highest, or the best.
Our highest court in the US is called the Supreme Court. You would think the process to appoint Justices would be supreme also. Instead, we have an elected congress and representatives that don't do what they are elected to do and they want to play partisan politics. Many of these politicians are incumbents (multi-term politicians like Mitch McConnell).
These politicians often say that they are supporting the intent of our founding fathers. Grant you, some of their ideas are pretty old and bias. However, we know the constitution isn't perfect, since we have made many constitutional amendments that we had to fight for...that today seem like common sense. I wonder what the constitution would have looked like if those that wrote it were made up of a diverse society that we have today (instead of a group of white men).
I believe that most people would agree that the intent was to evolve our constitution and not stagnate it or use it to support a particular political party or support religious bias. If we find flaws in the constitution and in our legislation, then we have an obligation to fix them for the betterment of our country and its people.
For this reason, I believe we need to change the process for nominating a Supreme Court Justice and add a term limit for those that are appointed.
My thoughts...
1) The Supreme Court justices should be limited to a 9-year term. The term should be equal to the number of justices on the Supreme Court, but no longer than 10 years. In this way, a justice is appointed each year. If we discover that a justice has a strong bias or radical views that was not expected, then we know that they will be limited to one 9-year term and not a life-term.
2) Today, the President submits nominees to Congress. I recommend that we limit Congress to 30 days to accept or deny each nominee from the time the President nominates an individual.
3) The President can submit any number of nominees. Minimum of 3, if the first 2 are denied. The President can nominate 3 individuals at the same time or stagger the nominations depending on the situation. The President can acknowledge his preference for Justice if multiple nominees are submitted to Congress.
4) Congress must approve a nominee before the outgoing Supreme Court Justice term ends. Failure to do so, will result in the President choosing the next Supreme Court justice without Congress approval from those that were nominated. The President must nominate a minimum of 3 individuals for SCOTUS. If all are denied, then the President can appoint the next Supreme Court Justice from those that were nominated.
5) If a Supreme Court Justice dies before the end of their term, then Congress has 90 days to confirm a nominee from the current sitting President (at the time of the justice death). The current sitting President must provide at least 3 nominees. If Congress does not chose a nominee before a new President takes office, then the President (at the time of the Justice death) can determine which candidate is their preferred nominee in the event Congress denies all 3 nominees or does not confirm any. This is to avoid political bias and indecision.
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