Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3544 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3544

 To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the duration of
    active service of justices of the Supreme Court, and for other
                               purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 21, 2025

 Mr. Johnson of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms.
Balint, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Carson, Mr. Casar, Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke of New
  York, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Dean of
   Pennsylvania, Ms. DeLauro, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Deluzio, Mr. Evans of
  Pennsylvania, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Frost, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr.
 Goldman of New York, Mr. Himes, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Khanna,
 Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Landsman, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr. Levin,
  Mr. Lieu, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ocasio-
 Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Pressley, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Ryan,
Ms. Salinas, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms.
  Stansbury, Mr. Takano, Mr. Thanedar, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the duration of
    active service of justices of the Supreme Court, and for other
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Supreme Court Tenure Establishment
and Retirement Modernization Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. SUPREME COURT TERMS OF OFFICE.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 1 of title 28, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 7. Appointment
    ``(a) Regular Appointment of Justices.--The President shall, during
the first and third years after a year in which there is a Presidential
election, nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, appoint one justice of the Supreme Court.
    ``(b) Exclusive Method of Appointment.--The President shall not
appoint any justice of the Supreme Court except as provided in this
section.
    ``(c) Limitation on Repeat Appointments.--An individual, once
confirmed by the Senate, may only serve one 18-year term as a Supreme
Court Justice.
    ``(d) Senate Confirmation.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Senate shall exercise its authority
        to provide advice and consent on nominations made under
        subsection (a) not later than 90 days after the date on which
        the individual is nominated by the President.
            ``(2) Withdrawal or disapproval.--If the President
        withdraws a nomination under subsection (a) or the Senate
        disapproves such a nomination, the President shall make another
        nomination under subsection (a). The Senate shall exercise its
        authority to provide advice and consent on such a subsequent
        nomination not later than 120 days after the date on which the
        individual is nominated by the President.
``Sec. 8. Duration of active service
    ``(a) New Justices.--Each justice shall serve in regular active
service for 18 years beginning on the date on which the justice is
sworn in, after which the justice shall be deemed to have retired from
regular active service under section 371.
    ``(b) Current Justices.--Each justice who was appointed before the
date of enactment of this section and who is serving as a justice on
the date of enactment of this section shall, notwithstanding the period
of service of the justice, in order of duration of service beginning
with the justice who has served on the Supreme Court for the longest
period of time, be deemed to have retired from regular active service
under section 371(b) upon the date of commission of each new justice as
they are appointed under section 7.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 1 of
title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following:

``7. Appointment.
``8. Duration of active service.''.

SEC. 3. SENIOR JUSTICES.

    Section 294 of title 28, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (d), by striking the period at the end
        and inserting ``except as provided by subsection (e).'';
            (2) by redesignating subsection (e) as subsection (f); and
            (3) by inserting after subsection (d) the following:
    ``(e) In the event that the number of justices of the Supreme Court
falls below that provided in section 1 due to vacancy, disability, or
disqualification, a justice of the Supreme Court who has retired from
regular active service under section 371 but retained their office
shall be chosen by the Chief Justice through a publicly transparent and
randomized process to serve as an associate justice until the number of
justices who have not retired from regular active service equals that
provided in section 1.''.
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