Federal old age and tenure of office Constitutional Amendment

Time for a Federal old age and tenure of office Constitutional Amendment.

As I promised in the other thread, I have expanded my previous proposal to cover all three branches of government.

The amendment deals both with age limits and service limits. It also adds MINIMUM ages for service in the judiciary, similar to the minimums that already exist for service as President and service in Congress.

It also provides a non-partisan manner to formally and efficiently remove Judges, either for misconduct or for disability.

Amendment ???

Section 1. No person shall be eligible for election to the Office of President or Vice President of the United States if, prior to the end of the Presidential term being sought, such person shall attain to the age of sixty five years.

Section 2. No person otherwise eligible to secede to the Office of President of the United States shall do so if, prior to the end of the current Presidential term, such person shall attain to the age of sixty five years.

Section 3. This amendment shall have no effect during the duration of the Presidential term in which it was ratified and proclaimed, nor shall it have effect during the duration of a Presidential term commencing less than eighteen months following its ratification and proclamation.

Section 4. No person shall be eligible for election to either House of Congress, or appointment to the Senate, if such person shall attain to the age of seventy years prior to the end of the term sought.

Section 5. The term of a United States Senator shall be four years, staggered so that each State shall elect a Senator at every general election. The Senate shall, by resolution, provide for the this section to take effect, but this section shall have full effect no later than the commencement of the third Congress following the ratification and proclamation of this article of amendment.

Section 6. No person shall serve as a Senator or Representative for more than eight years in any period of sixteen years.

Section 7. No person shall serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who shall have attained to the age of seventy years. However, if the person’s birthday shall fall on and from the first day of October until the thirtieth day of June subsequent, such person shall be permitted to remain on the Supreme Court until the termination of the current term of the court.

Section 8. All persons retired from the Supreme Court of the United States under the previous section shall be deemed to hold the office of United States Circuit Judge at large. Such persons shall be eligible to serve by designation on any court established under Article III of the Constitution. Such persons shall retain the salary of a Supreme Court Justice for the remainder of their lives.

Section 9. No person shall serve in active status as a Judge under Article III of the Constitution who shall have attained to the age of eighty years, but may continue to serve in senior status as provided by law and the following section of this article of amendment.

Section 10. There shall be established a Commission on Judicial Misconduct and Disability to consist of twenty one members, seven to be appointed by the President, seven to be appointed by the Supreme Court, four to be appointed by the Speaker of the House and three to be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate. Each member shall serve a four year term, removable only for just cause by the appointing authority. The Commission shall have the authority to investigate all complaints of judicial misconduct and disability and shall have full authority to send for persons and papers The Commission shall have the authority to subpoena and question any Judge of the United States and shall have the authority, in cases of complaints of disability, to require the Judge to submit to medical examination and to have such access to the Judge’s medical records as is necessary to evaluate any complaint, any law of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. If fifteen members of the Commission shall concur in the opinion that a Judge is guilty of misconduct, they may sanction a Judge up to but not exceeding a paid suspension of one year. In extraordinary cases, the Commission may serve Articles of Impeachment upon the Judge and shall be authorized to demand the Senate proceed to trial on such impeachments and shall be authorized to act as their own managers on such impeachments. This section shall not be construed to either deny or impair the House of Representatives power of impeachment. However, when a Judge other than a Justice of the Supreme Court is impeached, the Commission may instead demand an impeachment trial before the Supreme Court of the United States. Guilty votes of two thirds of the total number of Justices shall be necessary for conviction and removal from office. If fifteen members of the Commission concur that a Judge suffers from a disability sufficient to conclude that the Judge is not competent to carry out the duties of his office, the Commission may involuntarily and immediately retire said Judge on full salary during the remainder of his life as provided by law.

Section 11. No person shall be appointed to any court established under Article III of the Constitution who has not attained to the age of forty years. No person shall be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States who has not attained to the age of fifty five years and who has not previously served at least five years on a lower Article III court.

Do this:

minimume age for house, senate, president, and any judiciary 45.

No house, senate, president, or any judiciary member can serve beyond the age of 75 (next in line for president may not exceed 75 if they will become president)

Add in to your amendment that there is an independent, non partisan commission that will be set up to check legislation for constitutionality before it can be introduced in either house.

Terms; House 2 years. Seante 6 years. President 4 years. No politician can serve for more than 14 years (that would be two house terms, a term in the senate, and a term as president). No person may be elected to an office that will have them exceed the 14 year limit.

No house, senate or president may become a lobiest for 4 years after leaving office. no family member of any house, senate or president may be a lobbyist.

Campaing finance. Candidates may only accept contributions from those in their district (house) or state (senate). They may only accept contributions from a living person.

Only candidates may name other politicians in advertising. All others may not use the likeness or name of any politician or candidate in any type of advertising (this restriction includes political paries, pac’s, business, or anything that is not the individual living candidate for office.)

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This seems ripe for abuse. There would be complaints after almost every judicial decision… and could it be used to pressure judges to rule a certain way?

So many non starters here it’s hard to even know where to start.

Section 1. No person shall be eligible for election to the Office of President or Vice President of the United States if, prior to the end of the Presidential term being sought, such person shall attain to the age of sixty five years.

Section 2. No person otherwise eligible to secede to the Office of President of the United States shall do so if, prior to the end of the current Presidential term, such person shall attain to the age of sixty five years.

Section 7. No person shall serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who shall have attained to the age of seventy years. However, if the person’s birthday shall fall on and from the first day of October until the thirtieth day of June subsequent, such person shall be permitted to remain on the Supreme Court until the termination of the current term of the court.

Section 9. No person shall serve in active status as a Judge under Article III of the Constitution who shall have attained to the age of eighty years, but may continue to serve in senior status as provided by law and the following section of this article of amendment.

Most people today retain their mental faculties through their sixties, seventies, and often well into their 80’s or even beyond.

If you want to do anything then make it easier to impeach judges and justices for violating their oaths and for extra or un constitutional rulings.

If you’re worried about their mental status have your judicial commission come up with some sort of cognitive abilities test to be given annually after a certain age, if they fail they’re gone.

This whole thing reeks of ageism and bad judgement. Wisdom comes with age.

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the crowd yells: “Renew!! Renew!!” and Logan begins his run…

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65 eh? Damn…I turn 62 tomorrow and I thought I was actually connecting more dots than ever, with fewer mistakes than ever. My monthly financial statements says this is true but…that OP says…“nope”. :sunglasses:

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  1. 61 to be elected President (can’t be 65 by end of term).

4A. Can’t run for the House if 68 but can’t run for the Senate if 66, either would be about the time of turning 70 by the end of the term.
4B. Basically disqualifies the Speaker of the House from assuming the office if 63 in an election year as they be 65 by the end of the Presidential term and would be ineligible. Someone could be 67 and Speaker of the House and not be able to assume the office of President.

So, 61 to run for President (max of 65), 68 For Representative (max of 70), 66 for Senator (max of 70), max of 80 for Article III Judges and unlimited age for Senior Status Judges. That seems pretty inconsistent in terms and would neither be fair or pass.

Then there is the impact on presidential line of succession issue as is reaches farther down if the VP, Speaker, or President Pro tempore can’t assume the office. (Major disaster? Enemy attach? Pandemic?)
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.WW, PHS

I posted this in another tread recently.
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I’ve wondered for a long time if it’s time to re-examine how SCOTUS Justices remain on the courts - kind of a term limit in an attempt to de-politicize.

The longest time a Justice could serve would be a maximum of 27 years (but it can be less).

During the 3rd year of each Presidential cycle the senior justice in terms of longevity is moved to retired or can move to Senior status. In Senior status Senior Justices are allowed to sit on 3-Justice panels that review some of the more routine matters that come to the court just as criminal appeals.

If a Justice retires or passes away, then the next junior Justice moves up in the retire/Senior queue and a new junior Justice is appointed and has 0 seniority.

That way each president gets to make 1 appointment each term in the 3rd year, it will rotate Justices enough that the high consolidation of - pardon my French - “old” justices passing or retiring in a single Presidents term is reduced significantly.

Some people won’t be happy with the idea of President Biden appointing 4 Justices.

OK, ya can all throw stone now.
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.WW, PSHA

This is used in Florida and other States and works well. It weeds out bad judges efficiently. But the Commission can determine really fast whether a complaint is legitimate or just “sour grapes.”

I would disagree with “most” people retaining their mental faculties. A large percentage do.

And it is not always easy to pick out somebody who is actually in mental decline.

Ronald Reagan is a prime example. His speeches and writings during the course of his Presidency were extensively and scientifically studied for vocabulary usage and other metrics. His vocabulary and the overall metrics of his speech and writing declined on a small but significant line throughout his Presidency. The Alzheimer’s Disease that would eventually kill him was already well at work. Fortunately, his decline did not incapacitate him while he was in office, but that could have been a realistic possibility.

Post Presidency, Bill Clinton showed a dramatic decline. Not close to the mentality he had while President.

Both Biden and Trump have declined considerably from what they were in their respective primes.

Dementia on either part. We don’t know.

Alzheimer’s can only be conclusively diagnosed after death by examining the brain tissue.

EITHER man (or BOTH) could become incapacitated during the period from today through January 20th, 2025. You don’t know. I don’t know. Nobody on this board knows. But it is clearly a possibility and neither man is exactly a genius today, so even a mild decline could be incapacitating.

There are 328 million people in the United States. Greater than 100 million who are between the ages of 35 and 61.

People that are actually attuned with the generation that is both working class, managing class and governing class. People that are more attuned with the world of today, not the world of yesteryear.

I would far rather have a vigorous person of 35 to 61 in the Presidency, as opposed to the turd sandwich and giant â– â– â– â– â– â–  that we are going to have to choose between in November 2020.

If a president becomes incapacitated we already have a means to remove them, two in fact.

The same could be done for judges and justices with something similar to the 25th Amendment.

The thing that I noticed was the 4 year senate term. I think there is benfit to having one of the houses turn over slower than the other.

Happy Birthday!

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I’d be in favor of term limits for both houses. 3 or 4, 3 year terms in the house, two six year terms in the senate.

The “Professional Politician” should be extinct.

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I’ve said many times that I’m from CA, and term limits haven’t improved our governance.
What has happened is that instead of Professional Politicians (like Willie Brown), the state is being run by lobiests and special interests. (It amazes me how many topics, outside of education, the Teachers Union believes is its business.) The lobbyists stick around, are more experienced, know more than the elected officials and are better at pushing legislation (or regulation) through.

Career politicians, (“The job of a politician is to get re-elected so they can keep stealing.” “An honest politician is one who stays bought.”) have done more good for the country than newbies.
I’m not asking you to judge the wisdom of their policies but to look at their effectiveness, but compare AOC to LBJ or Truman. LBJ and Truman, career politicians (corrupt, connected, established, choose your euphemism), actually got things done that expressed their philosophy. AOC has made some noise, gotten press, but achieved nothing. And she’s not likely to have much influence unless she wins several terms. You would be better at identifying conservative congress members who could eventually make a difference, if they can stick around to figure out how to make the damn place work.

Politicians, we have some level of control every election. Lobbyists, we got no juice at all.

An informed interested electorate doesn’t need statutory term limits. And no structural scheme will replace an informed interested electorate.

There’s definitely truth in that but it’s a step in the right direction.

The power of professional lobbying organizations needs addressed as well.

I’m afraid you are repeating false news when you accuse Reagan of having the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s while he was in office. This is a fake story that has been repeated so many times that people now believe it as fact when it is a lie.
Reagan was not diagnosed with the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s until 1994. He left office in 1988. Every year he was in office he had extensive metal testing at the mayo clinic and passed with flying colors. These tests included tests for dementia and mental deterioration. Every year after he left office he had the same tests run at the Mayo clinic and passed with flying colors. Until 1994 when he was diagnosed with the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.

Facts no longer have any relevance or meaning in political discussions. Hell, they have no place at all in them.

I’m afraid your right.

Unfortunately, it is you who are completely mistaken. Reagan was diagnosed in 1994. That was when his pattern of symptoms gave his physician sufficient basis to diagnose the disease. (I would note that a definitive diagnoses of Alzheimer’s can only be made post mortem from an examination of brain tissue.)

But Alzheimer’s disease just doesn’t start one day. You aren’t healthy one day and stricken the next. The development of plague and tangled neurons characteristic of Alzheimer’s begins years before ANY appreciable memory loss begins. The brain is redundant to a degree and can tolerate a certain amount of damage before symptoms begin to show. And in late onset, slow progression Alzheimer’s, the disease moves so slowly it is impossible to recognize it in real time. You lose a vocabulary word here and then over the course of months and years. As time goes on, the effect of the disease increases progressively. Thankfully, in Reagan’s case, that point was not reached until well after he left office.

Reagan’s writings and papers have been exhaustively studied. His vocabulary loss between January 20th, 1981 and January 20th, 1989 is a carefully documented fact. A fact that is beyond dispute.

Here is a FACT. Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease when he took office in 1981. The fact that he was not diagnosed until 1994 is entirely irrelevant. The facts of Alzheimer’s progression are well known and we know for a fact that the disease exists in people well before they show symptoms. Reagan had plagues and tangles in his neurons to some degree. We KNOW how Alzheimer’s proceeds. To try to make the statement that Reagan suddenly developed Alzheimer’s between January 20th, 1989 and 1994, is silly, when his vocabulary loss prior to 1989 is well documented and a matter of record.

Those are the FACTS.

Anything in contradiction is fake news.