<P> Some Court decisions have been criticized for injecting the Court into the political arena, and deciding questions that are the purview of the other two branches of government . The Bush v. Gore decision, in which the Supreme Court intervened in the 2000 presidential election and effectively chose George W. Bush over Al Gore, has been criticized extensively, particularly by liberals . Another example are Court decisions on apportionment and re-districting: in Baker v. Carr, the court decided it could rule on apportionment questions; Justice Frankfurter in a "scathing dissent" argued against the court wading into so - called political questions . </P> <P> Senator Arlen Specter said the Court should "decide more cases". On the other hand, although Justice Scalia acknowledged in a 2009 interview that the number of cases that the Court hears now is smaller today than when he first joined the Supreme Court, he also stated that he has not changed his standards for deciding whether to review a case, nor does he believe his colleagues have changed their standards . He attributed the high volume of cases in the late 1980s, at least in part, to an earlier flurry of new federal legislation that was making its way through the courts . </P> <P> Critic Larry Sabato wrote: "The insularity of lifetime tenure, combined with the appointments of relatively young attorneys who give long service on the bench, produces senior judges representing the views of past generations better than views of the current day ." Sanford Levinson has been critical of justices who stayed in office despite medical deterioration based on longevity . James MacGregor Burns stated lifelong tenure has "produced a critical time lag, with the Supreme Court institutionally almost always behind the times ." Proposals to solve these problems include term limits for justices, as proposed by Levinson and Sabato as well as a mandatory retirement age proposed by Richard Epstein, among others . However, others suggest lifetime tenure brings substantial benefits, such as impartiality and freedom from political pressure . Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 78 wrote "nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office ." </P> <P> The 21st century has seen increased scrutiny of justices accepting expensive gifts and travel . All of the members of the Roberts Court have accepted travel or gifts . In 2012, Justice Sonia Sotomayor received $1.9 million in advances from her publisher Knopf Doubleday . Justice Scalia and others took dozens of expensive trips to exotic locations paid for by private donors . Private events sponsored by partisan groups that are attended by both the justices and those who have an interest in their decisions have raised concerns about access and inappropriate communications . Stephen Spaulding, the legal director at Common Cause, said: "There are fair questions raised by some of these trips about their commitment to being impartial ." </P>

Retirement age of supreme court judges in usa