About the bill
Should lifetime appointments become a thing of the past?
Context
Two of the three most recent Supreme Court justices were appointed because a member died. As the comedian Bill Maher recently put it, in practice this country has “Supreme Court nomination by fluke.”
In the past 44 years, Republicans have held the White House for 24 years versus the Democrats’ 20 — not much difference. But during that same period, Republican presidents confirmed 12 Supreme Court justices versus the Democrats’ four.
As the most recent example, Republican Donald Trump confirmed more justices in four years alone than his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama or Bill Clinton each did in eight. (And Democrat Jimmy Carter didn’t even get the opportunity to nominate a single justice.)
This discrepancy — and its disconnect …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced on September 29, 2020, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
10 Cosponsors (10 Democrats)
History
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Sep 29, 2020
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Aug 31, 2021
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 5140 (117th). |
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Jun 30, 2023
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 4423. |
H.R. 8424 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 8424. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
We recommend the following MLA-formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:
“H.R. 8424 — 116th Congress: Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act of 2020.” www.GovTrack.us. 2020. September 25, 2023 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr8424>
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
