The decision of Justice Stephen Breyer to retire this year in order to assure that President Joe Biden will be able to name his replacement has brought to the fore once again the issue of whether there should be term limits for Supreme Court justices. The answer is a resounding yes, with the main question being how to get there.

What's wrong with the current system of life-time appointments? The fact that no other democracy in the world—and no state except Rhode Island—has life tenure for the judges of their highest courts ought to be a warning why it's bad for democratic governments. I doubt that many Americans today, especially knowing the outsized role that the court has in our society, would design our federal judicial system this way. But we are not back in 1787, and there are very good reasons to make a change that would improve the legitimacy of the court.