[Larry Hastings]

...

However, once appointed, Elders are appointed is "for life". The only way to remove one would be for them to voluntarily step down--there would be no mechanism to remove one from office. (Perhaps this is too strong--perhaps one could be removed by a unanimous vote from all other Elders?) I want the Council to be immune to popular opinion, to be empowered to do what they think is right without fear of anything beyond negative public opinion.

At the time the US"s founders drafted the Constitution, mean US life expectancy was about 35 years A Federal judge only had to maintain "good behavior" to keep their job, but I imagine they expected most judges would die within a decade or two regardless.

I really don't think they'd be happy with how the Supreme Court turned out - political ideologues wielding near-absolute power for decades on end.

So: term limits! Say, 12 years. If there are 3 Elders, replace one every 12/3 = 4 years. At the start we can use the `secrets` module to pick which Elders get the first 4, 8, and 12-year terms ;-)

Fresh blood is a good thing in all areas.

I'm not sure how we'd replace Elders. Maybe they'd hold an internal-only election? ("Jo has decided to step down, and we have elected Sam as Jo's replacement.")

Obviously, an Elder would be nominated by the President and confirmed with the advice and consent of the Senate ;-)

Or, short of that, by an approval vote of the Fellows (whatever it is we call for-real PSF members these days).

And I'd propose to let the Fellows remove an Elder by a 2/3rd supermajority vote (akin to the bar for impeachment of a US President).