Skip to main content
CivicGate

HR 3544
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act of 2025

To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the duration of active service of justices of the Supreme Court, and for other purposes.

Introduced May 21, 2025

Latest action (May 21, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Policy area
Law

Summary

The bill establishes an 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices and creates a regular appointment schedule where the President nominates one justice during the first and third years following each presidential election, with Senate confirmation required within 90 days. Each new justice would serve 18 years in regular active service and then transition to senior status, while current justices at the time the law takes effect would retire from regular active service in order of seniority as new justices are appointed. The bill requires the Senate to vote on Supreme Court nominees within a specified timeframe, and provides that retired justices can be called upon to temporarily serve as active justices if the Court falls below nine justices due to vacancies or disability.

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)

85 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Henry C. "Hank" Johnson’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • GREGORY B. LEVETT FUNERAL HOME $3,300
  • FORBES TATE $3,300
  • RICELAND HEALTHCARE $3,300
  • BEY & ASSOCIATES $3,300
  • BENCHMARK MANAGEMENT $3,300

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Henry C. "Hank" Johnson → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

  1. May 21, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
  2. May 21, 2025 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.

Text versions (1)

  • Introduced in House · May 21, 2025

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

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 21, 2025

Mr. Johnson of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Auchincloss, Ms. Balint, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Carson, Mr. Casar, Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Ms. DeLauro, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Deluzio, Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Frost, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Himes, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Landsman, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr. Levin, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ocasio- Cortez, Ms. Omar, Ms. Pingree, Ms. Pressley, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Ryan, Ms. Salinas, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Stansbury, Mr. Takano, Mr. Thanedar, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the duration of active service of justices of the Supreme Court, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. SUPREME COURT TERMS OF OFFICE.

(a) In General.—Chapter 1 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: “Sec. 7. Appointment

“(a) Regular Appointment of Justices.—The President shall, during the first and third years after a year in which there is a Presidential election, nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint one justice of the Supreme Court.

“(b) Exclusive Method of Appointment.—The President shall not appoint any justice of the Supreme Court except as provided in this section.

“(c) Limitation on Repeat Appointments.—An individual, once confirmed by the Senate, may only serve one 18-year term as a Supreme Court Justice.

“(d) Senate Confirmation.—

“(1) In general.—The Senate shall exercise its authority to provide advice and consent on nominations made under subsection (a) not later than 90 days after the date on which the individual is nominated by the President.

“(2) Withdrawal or disapproval.—If the President withdraws a nomination under subsection (a) or the Senate disapproves such a nomination, the President shall make another nomination under subsection (a). The Senate shall exercise its authority to provide advice and consent on such a subsequent nomination not later than 120 days after the date on which the individual is nominated by the President. “Sec. 8. Duration of active service

“(a) New Justices.—Each justice shall serve in regular active service for 18 years beginning on the date on which the justice is sworn in, after which the justice shall be deemed to have retired from regular active service under section 371.

“(b) Current Justices.—Each justice who was appointed before the date of enactment of this section and who is serving as a justice on the date of enactment of this section shall, notwithstanding the period of service of the justice, in order of duration of service beginning with the justice who has served on the Supreme Court for the longest period of time, be deemed to have retired from regular active service under section 371(b) upon the date of commission of each new justice as they are appointed under section 7.”.

(b) Clerical Amendment.—The table of sections for chapter 1 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“7. Appointment. “8. Duration of active service.”.

SEC. 3. SENIOR JUSTICES.

Section 294 of title 28, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subsection (d), by striking the period at the end and inserting “except as provided by subsection (e).”;

(2) by redesignating subsection (e) as subsection (f); and

(3) by inserting after subsection (d) the following:

“(e) In the event that the number of justices of the Supreme Court falls below that provided in section 1 due to vacancy, disability, or disqualification, a justice of the Supreme Court who has retired from regular active service under section 371 but retained their office shall be chosen by the Chief Justice through a publicly transparent and randomized process to serve as an associate justice until the number of justices who have not retired from regular active service equals that provided in section 1.”. <all>

Comments

Comments

Loading comments…