When America was founded a male's life expectancy was 35 years old! 35! So a "lifetime" appointment meant something entirely different than it does now. This slippery standard means ideologies are institutionalized for generations.
It's past time to enact SCOTUS term limits.
@Committovote Great point!
@Committovote keep in mind that child moratality can really skew life expectancy stats. For example 46% of children under 5 died in the US in the early 1800s - that really screws with the numbers. That said, there should absolutely should be term limits, not only for judges, but politicians as well.
@sptaillefer That's a good point, but it's still in the early 60s for those who survived childhood. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2625386/
@Committovote No, SCOTUS doesn't need term limits, it needs terms.
SCOTUS appointments should be for a fixed, renewable period, on the order of 8 years.
@Committovote "Arms" in the context of the Second Amendment also meant something entirely different to how it is understood today. It referred to swords, pikes, repurposed farming implements, and (very rarely, as they were too expensive for most) muskets and flintlock pistols.
Also, "to keep and to bear" as opposed to "own", in a document that mentions ownership of goods & property circa 20 times as a qualifier to citizenship.
SCOTUS' scurrilous interpretation of the 2A was a massive con.