Most in new poll want to end justices’ lifetime appointments

Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. adults surveyed in a new poll said that they believed Supreme Court justices should face term limits and leave the court after a certain amount of time on the bench.

The Reuters-Ipsos survey conducted between April 15 and April 16 found that just 22 percent of respondents supported lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices, while 63 percent supported term limits. The remainder of respondents had no opinion or were unsure. 

While having new faces join the court was important for many Americans, doing it without a vacancy on the court at its current size was not nearly as popular. Just 38 percent said they supported court packing, or expanding the size of the Supreme Court and adding more justices to the bench, while 42 percent opposed such an idea. The remaining 20 percent of respondents were unsure.

President Biden has pledged to launch a bipartisan committee aimed at looking at potential reforms to the court, including court packing. Many left-leaning activists support such a proposal due to the successful confirmation of three justices nominated by former President Trump who they argue will be hostile to liberal causes for decades as a result.

In the new Reuters-Ipsos survey, many Americans expressed a lack of confidence in the court, and just 49 percent said they had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in its decisions, though that percentage was higher than what was registered for the respondents who had confidence in the White House or members of Congress.

The poll was conducted online with responses from 1,003 U.S. adults with a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.