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 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.
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@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/