Question for @TheGNapp and @JRakove and @dorfonlaw . I know it says in Art III Sect 1 of the Constitution that judges “will hold their offices during good behavior” which means they need to be impeached to be removed (not “at will.”) But would that preclude Congress passing a new

Judiciary act that made it so all Supreme Court justices held their offices for a term of years? In 1822 Jefferson recommended: “Let future appointments of Judges be for four or six years....” Jefferson to William T Barry 1822.

He worried a great deal about the judiciary. On the one hand, he agreed that judges should be independent of kings (the issue before the Revolution). But he did not think that judges should be too independent of Congress.

So my question is: aren’t appointments to the Supreme Court “for life” optional? Could Congress changes those rules? Or would it take a Constitutional amendment? I’m writing as someone who has studied judicial overreach in the 150 years _before_ the Constitution.

It seems to me that if the issue of lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is simply a norm, that McConnell and the others have so thoroughly violated all norms that this too —lifetime appointments—should be up for debate.