A feature of federal judicial nominations is that these people stay on for life. The intention is to give stability.
However, with long life spans, these people can sit on the bench for a very long time. Not necessarily bad.
Yet there seems to me that there is too little political process check
on the judicial appointments. After all, a lame-duck president can appoint away without any fear of political fall out.
To make the process checked by the political process I suggest that when there is a judicial vacancy, allow the sitting president to appoint a justice. If the nominee passes senate confirmation, allow the justice to server probationaly. During the next presidential term, the president may remove the probation. Thus, if a first-term president makes an appointment and he is re-elected, he can confirm his own nominee. If, however, the public is unhappy with the first-term president's nominations, they can vote him out of office and his rival can remove any justices that are still in their probation phase.