The Drums for Thomas and Alito

The drums are starting to beat for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to step down from the Supreme Court. That could give President Trump the chance to name younger justices. Some of this malarkey is coming from the press. Some is a reaction to Justice Thomas’ remarks ahead of the 250th anniversary of independence. Some, though, is from Mr. Trump, who, over the chance to make an appointment, has come down with ants in his pants. This is a dismaying development. Justices Thomas and Alito are the wisest sages on the high bench. They have the time in grade that is required to distill wisdom. Justice Thomas has been a judge or justice for more than 36 years, and Justice Alito for more than 35 years. Neither has had to issue any apologies for being unable to contain their emotions, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor did the other day in respect of Justice Kavanaugh. Mr. Trump, in any event, is musing in public about how nice it would be to nominate a justice who could serve, as he reckoned, 40 years. He told Fox News on Wednesday in respect of vacancies that there “could be two, could be three, could be one.” While Mr. Trump lauded Justice Alito as “one of the great justices of all time,” he mused that “It’d be nice to say, now I have somebody for 40 years.” Meaning an untested newcomer with decades ahead.We grasp that Article III, the federal judiciary, is not entirely divorced from Articles I and II. Mr. Trump is approaching the halfway mark of his second term, and Democrats could take Congress in the fall. If ever there were a moment for Mr. Trump to add to his tally of three Supreme Court justices from his first term, now would appear to be it. The Constitution, though, affords federal judges life tenure, with impeachment the only exception.These columns have mooted the proposal to “keep life tenure but limit membership on the high court to those who are age 75 or older.” The notion was spurred by precisely this talk of Justice Alito stepping down. To the demands that he resign we say “don’t do it. Stay on the bench.” Justice Thomas, we reckon, “is just hitting his stride as he paces the corridors of the Constitution.” As for Justice Alito, he has only recently attained “the age of parchment.”For proof that Justice Thomas has lost not a tick off his fastball, look no farther than the stemwinder of a speech he gave on Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin’s law school. As our A.R. Hoffman relates, the jurist invoked the wide sweep of American and world history, calling on everyone from Otto von Bismarck to President Coolidge to Alexis de Tocqueville to prove his point that progressivism is antithetical to the principles of 1776.As America readies to celebrate its semiquincentennial, that wisdom — call it originalism — is what the nation requires. Besides, there is much work yet for these wisest of justices to do on the court. The issue of birthright citizenship, say, has yet to be decided. Justices are not fungible. Even if Mr. Trump were to appoint two more conservatives of similar judicial mien, it would be hard to match the virtue of age attained by Justices Alito and Thomas.

The Drums for Thomas and Alito

The Drums for Thomas and Alito

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