Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer signals support for term limits on the bench

Former US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer appeared to endorse ending lifetime appointments to the bench in an interview aired on Sunday.

Mr Breyer retired in 2022 after serving on the nation’s highest court for 28 years. His seat was filled by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be appointed to the court.

In a pre-recorded interview, which aired on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Mr Breyer was asked by Kristen Welker about imposing a term limit, or age limit, onSupreme Court justices.

“I don’t think that’s harmful,” he responded.

“If you had long terms, for example, they'd have to be long. Why long? Because I don't think you want someone who's appointed to the Supreme Court to be thinking about his next job. “So, a 20-year term? I don't know, 18?… I don't think that would be harmful.”

He added that an age limit, or 20-year term limit, would have “helped” him make the decision of when to retire.

Mr Breyer, who had a liberal record during his time on the Supreme Court, retired in early 2022. The move allowed for the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson under a Democratic-controlled Senate ahead of that year’s midterm elections, which threatened to return the chamber to GOP control.

The issue of Supreme Court retirements became sharply politicised during the final months of Barack Obama’s presidency. Mr Obama was facing down an election cycle as a lame-duck president with a GOP-controlled Senate headed by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Mr Obama nominated appellate court justice Merrick Garland as his replacement. However Mr McConnell, unwilling to see a conservative seat flipped to a liberal-aligned justice, refused to