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HJRES 145
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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the terms of office of the judges of the Supreme Court and inferior courts.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the terms of office of the judges of the Supreme Court and inferior courts.

Introduced Jan 30, 2026

Latest action (Jan 30, 2026) Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Referred to
Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Law
Issues
Criminal Justice

Summary
  • Proposes a constitutional amendment to establish 20-year term limits for all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices
  • Proposes to replace the current practice of judges serving "during good behavior" (lifetime) with fixed 20-year terms
  • Proposes to prohibit judges from being reappointed to the same court after completing a 20-year term
  • Specifies that the term limits would apply only to judges appointed after the amendment is ratified
  • Requires approval by two-thirds of both the House and Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)
  1. Jan 30, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
  2. Jan 30, 2026 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HJRES 174 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide for term limits for justices of the Supreme Court. · Introduced May 4, 2026 · Cong. 119 86%
  • HJRES 1 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices. · Passed House Sep 2, 2026 · Cong. 119 76%
  • HJRES 198 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the seventeenth article of amendment. · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HJRES 12 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the number of terms that a Member of Congress may serve. · Introduced Jan 6, 2025 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HJRES 141 — Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require the concurrence of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress for the admission of new States into the Union. · Introduced Jan 21, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%
  • S 5076 — Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act of 2026 · Introduced Jul 22, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Jan 30, 2026

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 30, 2026

Mr. Barrett submitted the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the terms of office of the judges of the Supreme Court and inferior courts.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

“Article—

“Section 1. Each judge of the Supreme Court and each inferior court shall be appointed to serve during good behavior for a term of 20 years. “Section 2. No person who has served a term of 20 years as a judge of the Supreme Court or an inferior court shall be eligible for reappointment as a judge in the court in which such term was served. “Section 3. This article shall only apply to an appointment occurring on or after the date of the ratification of this article.”. <all>

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