Three Decades on the Supreme Court Is Too Long

Mr. Wegman, a contributing Opinion writer, is a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.

As of May 7, Justice Clarence Thomas is the second-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. When he took his judicial oath on Oct. 23, 1991, nearly half of Americans alive today were not yet born. Text was a noun and not a verb. Justice Thomas now trails only William O. Douglas, who served 36 years before stepping down in 1975 (although much of his last year was overshadowed by a stroke that left him partly paralyzed and paranoid).

Justice Thomas is far from alone in his durability. Justice John Paul Stevens served 35 years before he stepped down in 2010. In the past........

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