I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1074
To establish a process by which the appointment of Supreme Court Justices
can occur at regular time intervals, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY6, 2025
Mr. K
HANNA(for himself, Mr. BEYER, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. CASTEN, Ms. OMAR,
Mr. G
OLDMANof New York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. LEEof Pennsylvania, and
Ms. A
NSARI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish a process by which the appointment of Supreme
Court Justices can occur at regular time intervals, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Supreme Court Term 4
Limits and Regular Appointments Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 28, United 7
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-8
lowing: 9
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‘‘§ 7. Term limits 1
‘‘The President shall, during the first and third years 2
after a year in which there is a Presidential election, nomi-3
nate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Sen-4
ate, appoint one Justice of the Supreme Court. 5
‘‘§ 8. Senior Justices 6
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 7
(c), the panel of justices exercising Judicial power in Cases 8
and Controversies shall comprise the nine most junior Jus-9
tices. 10
‘‘(b) D
EEMEDRETIRED.—After a Justice has served 11
18 years, that Justice shall be deemed a Justice retired 12
from regular active service under section 371(b). 13
‘‘(c) E
XCEPTION.—No Justice appointed before the 14
date of enactment of this Act shall be counted toward the 15
panel of nine Justices described in subsection (a), nor 16
shall they be required to retire from regular active service 17
under subsection (b). 18
‘‘§ 9. Waiver of advice and consent authority 19
‘‘If the Senate does not exercise its advice and con-20
sent authority with respect to a President’s nominee to 21
the Supreme Court within 120 days after the nomination, 22
the Senate shall be deemed to have waived its advice and 23
consent authority with respect to such nominee, and the 24
nominee shall be seated as a Justice of the Supreme 25
Court.’’. 26
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(b) CLERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 1
for chapter 1 of title 28, United States Code, is amended 2
by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘7. Term limits.
‘‘8. Senior Justices.
‘‘9. Waiver of advice and consent authority.’’.
SEC. 3. SENIOR JUSTICES.
4
Section 294 of title 28, United States Code, is 5
amended— 6
(1) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol-7
lows: 8
‘‘(a) Any Chief Justice of the United States or Asso-9
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court who has retired from 10
regular active service under section 371(b) of this title 11
shall be known and designated as a Senior Justice and 12
may continue to perform such judicial duties as such Jus-13
tice is willing and able to undertake, when designated and 14
assigned by the Chief Justice of the United States.’’; 15
(2) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘of such 16
court’’ and all that follows through ‘‘Supreme 17
Court.’’ and inserting: ‘‘of such court, except that 18
any designation or assignment made to the Supreme 19
Court shall be in accordance with subsection (e).’’; 20
(3) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub-21
section (g); and 22
(4) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(e)(1) When there is a vacancy on the Supreme 1
Court due to the death, disability certification under sec-2
tion 372, or removal of a Justice, the retired Chief Justice 3
of the United States or Associate Justice of the Supreme 4
Court who has most recently become a Senior Justice shall 5
be designated and assigned to serve as a Justice until an 6
appointment is made under section 7 of this title. 7
‘‘(2) If there is more than one vacancy on the Su-8
preme Court, the Senior Justice who has served in such 9
capacity for the least amount of time shall be designated 10
and assigned to serve as a Justice by the Chief Justice 11
until each vacancy on the Supreme Court is filled. 12
‘‘(f) Any Chief Justice of the United States or Asso-13
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court who has retired from 14
regular active service under section 372 may not be a Sen-15
ior Justice.’’. 16
SEC. 4. EXCEPTION TO APPOINTMENT OF A SUCCESSOR. 17
(a) R
ETIREDJUSTICES.—Section 371 of title 28, 18
United States Code, is amended— 19
(1) in subsection (d)— 20
(A) by striking ‘‘justice or’’; and 21
(B) by inserting before the period at the 22
end the following: ‘‘or designate a Senior Jus-23
tice in accordance with section 294(e) to fill a 24
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vacancy resulting from the retirement of a jus-1
tice under this section’’; and 2
(2) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(f) Any justice of the United States who has served 4
a total of 18 years as a justice shall be treated as a justice 5
retired from regular active service under this section, un-6
less the justice is otherwise eligible to retire as a result 7
of a disability under section 372.’’. 8
(b) D
ISABLEDJUSTICES.—Section 372(a) of title 28, 9
United States Code, is amended in the first sentence, by 10
inserting after ‘‘a successor’’ the following: ‘‘or, in the case 11
of a justice of the United States, fill the vacancy in accord-12
ance with section 294(e)’’. 13
Æ
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