• panthera_@lemmy.today
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    11 hours ago

    You could be correct. It’s a good problem that could be presented to mathematicians. Find the smallest number that prevents a single President from appointing a majority of SCOTUS justices. Mathematicians would be permitted to change the number of justices. The problem with 18 is that a bad justice would serve a long time, but it might be the only solution.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The number of justices isn’t the reason for 18 years. It’s the length of Presidential administrations. A single administration is normally limited to 8 years, so the length of the SCOTUS term has to be more than double that to prevent them from nominating half the justices.

      • panthera_@lemmy.today
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        4 hours ago

        True, but it might be difficult to impose term limits because the Constitution says SCOTUS justices have lifetime appointments.