Rick Perry had a good idea!

[_MeDotOrg]

Supreme Court nominations have become highly politicized. Rick Perry had a very interesting solution which I think is worth investigating:

A Constitutional Amendment creating 18-year terms staggered every 2 years, so that each of the nine Justices would be replaced in order of seniority every other year. This would be a prospective proposal, and would be applied to future judges only. Doing this would move the court closer to the people by ensuring that every President would have the opportunity to replace two Justices per term, and that no court could stretch its ideology over multiple generations. Further, this reform would maintain judicial independence, but instill regularity to the nominations process, discourage Justices from choosing a retirement date based on politics, and will stop the ever-increasing tenure of Justices.

I like it. I'm not sure what happens if a justice dies or retires before their 18 years are up, but I'm sure that could be worked out.