Age, Tenure and Productivity of the U.S. Supreme Court: Are Term Limits Necessary?

Abstract:     
This paper examines the relationship between the productivity of the U.S. Supreme Court and the age and tenure of the Supreme Court Justices. The motivation for this paper is the Supreme Court Renewal Act of 2005 (SCRA) and other recent proposals to impose term limits for Supreme Court Justices. The authors of the SCRA and others suggest that term limits are necessary because, inter alia, increased longevity and terms of service of the Justices has resulted in a decline in the productivity of the Court as measured by the number of cases accepted for review and the number of opinions issued per term. On the whole, the empirical findings of this paper do not provide clear support for this assertion.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 22

Keywords: age, tenure, productivity, Supreme Court, term limits

JEL Classification: K40

Accepted Paper Series