Reply #6: After ten years, they're just getting the hang of the job.

[RaleighNCDUer]

I'd prefer 30 years.

There is regular enough turnover of administrations that as a justice approaches his/her 30 years he/she can gauge whether or not to retire a little early to maintain his own political bent or to sit out the full 30 if it looks like his position will be favored by the administration. With a 30 year term limit they are likely to see at least 3 changes in administration parties so the tendency to not appoint highly partisan jurists should still hold (a tendency observed more often in the breach than the observance by Repubs in the past 25 years). It allows the jurist independence from the person and party that appointed him. It would also allow them to retire in dignity, to write their memoirs, rather than having them die in the saddle - after 30 years of making some of the toughest decisions the country faces it is a shame they feel they must hang on to the last possible moment. They DESERVE retirement.