H.R. 1074 — Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act of 2025

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act of 2025.”

This section establishes 18-year term limits for Supreme Court Justices and requires the President to nominate one Justice during the first and third years after each presidential election year. It provides that the Supreme Court’s active panel would consist of the nine most junior Justices, and that a Justice would be deemed retired from regular active service after 18 years. It exempts Justices appointed before enactment from both the nine-Justice panel rule and the 18-year retirement requirement. It also provides that if the Senate does not act on a Supreme Court nomination within 120 days, the Senate is deemed to have waived its advice and consent authority and the nominee is seated as a Justice.

This section revises the rules for retired Supreme Court Justices serving in judicial duties under 28 U.S.C. § 294 by (1) renaming retired Chief Justices and Associate Justices who retired under 28 U.S.C. § 371(b) as “Senior Justice[s]” and authorizing them to perform judicial duties when designated by the Chief Justice of the United States; (2) requiring that any designation or assignment to the Supreme Court be made under new subsection (e), rather than under the general roster procedures for retired judges; and (3) adding a new temporary service mechanism for Supreme Court vacancies. Under that new mechanism, when a vacancy arises because of a Justice’s death, disability certification under 28 U.S.C. § 372, or removal, the retired Chief Justice or Associate Justice who most recently became a Senior Justice must be designated to serve as a Justice until an appointment is made under 28 U.S.C. § 7. If more than one vacancy exists, the Senior Justice who has served in that status for the shortest time must be designated to serve until all vacancies are filled. The section also provides that a retired Chief Justice or Associate Justice who retired under 28 U.S.C. § 372 may not be a Senior Justice.

This section revises the rules for filling vacancies created by the retirement of federal judges and justices under 28 U.S.C. § 371 and establishes a new retirement rule for Supreme Court justices. It (1) strikes the reference to a “justice” in subsection (d), so that the President must appoint a successor only to a retired judge, and adds authority for the President to designate a Senior Justice under 28 U.S.C. § 294(e) to fill a vacancy resulting from the retirement of a justice; and (2) adds a new subsection (f) providing that any justice who has served a total of 18 years as a justice is treated as retired from regular active service under this section, unless the justice is otherwise eligible to retire because of disability under 28 U.S.C. § 372. It also amends 28 U.S.C. § 372(a) to provide that, when a justice of the United States retires because of disability, the vacancy may be filled in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 294(e) rather than by appointment of a successor.