President Joe Biden has called for sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits, a binding code of conduct for its nine justices and a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
Biden, citing ‘recent ethics scandals’ involving justices and high court rulings that ‘overturned long-established legal precedents protecting fundamental rights’, has called on Congress to pass three major reforms in a bid to ‘restore trust and accountability’ in America’s democratic institutions.
The White House on Monday detailed the contours of Biden’s court proposal, noting how the Democrat believes ‘no one – neither the President nor the Supreme Court – is above the law’.
The President will officially propose the changes today during a speech in Austin, Texas, however his proposals appears to have little chance of being approved by a deeply-divided Congress with just 99 days to go before Election Day.
Regardless, Democrats hope Biden’s proposal will help to focus voters as they consider their choices in the tight presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has sought to frame her race against Republican former President Donald Trump as ‘a choice between freedom and chaos’.
President Joe Biden (pictured July 7) is unveiling a long-awaited proposal for changes at the U.S. Supreme Court, calling on Congress to establish term limits and an ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He also is pressing lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity
United States Supreme Court (front row L-R) Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Elena Kagan, (back row L-R) Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson
‘This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one,’ Biden penned in his Washington Post op-ed.
‘I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers,’ he added.
‘What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.’
Biden is calling for doing away with lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which the sitting president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in service on the court.
He argues term limits would help ensure that court membership changes with some regularity and adds a measure of predictability to the nomination process.
He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing a code of ethics for justices that would require justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.
Biden has also urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity ruling that determined former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.
It comes after the Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president in a landmark decision recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution.
The decision extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ended prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.
Biden’s push for reforms comes a week after Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris to square off against Republican presidential candidate Trump in November.
It also follows the Supreme Court’s ruling that there is no Constitutional right to abortion and other decisions that blocked Biden’s agenda on immigration, student loans, vaccine mandates and climate change.
Although the proposal is unlikely to pass, Democrats hope it will help to focus voters as they consider their choices in the tight presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris, (pictured during a campaign event on Saturday) the presumptive Democratic nominee, has sought to frame her race against Republican former President Donald Trump as ‘a choice between freedom and chaos’
It comes after the Supreme Court ruled in July that former President Donald Trump (pictured at a campaign event on Saturday) cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president in a landmark decision recognizing for the first time any form of presidential immunity from prosecution
Unlike other members of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court’s life-tenured justices have no binding ethics code of conduct.
They are subject to disclosure laws requiring them to report outside income and certain gifts, though food and other ‘personal hospitality’ such as lodging at an individual’s residence is generally exempted.
The Court in November adopted its first code of conduct after revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas accepting undisclosed travel from a wealthy benefactor.
There were also reports this year that flags associated with then-President Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss flew outside Justice Samuel Alito’s homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
Critics say the code of conduct does not go far enough since it allows justices to decide for themselves whether to recuse from cases and provides no enforcement mechanism.
The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, states that Congress can pass a bill changing the pay for members of the House and Senate, but such a change can’t take effect until after the next November elections are held for the House.
Trump has decried court reform as a desperate attempt by Democrats to ‘Play the Ref.’
‘The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court. We have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social site earlier this month.
There have been increasing questions surrounding the ethics of the court after revelations about some of the justices, including that Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips from a GOP megadonor.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed during the Obama administration, has faced scrutiny after it surfaced that her staff often prodded public institutions that hosted her to buy copies of her memoir or children’s books.
Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving Trump and Jan. 6 defendants despite a flap over provocative flags displayed at his home that some believe suggested sympathy to people facing charges over storming the US Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito says the flags were displayed by his wife.
Trump, at the time, congratulated Alito on his social media site for ‘showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and “GUTS”‘ in refusing to step aside. ‘All US Judges, Justices, and Leaders should have such GRIT.’
Democrats say the Biden effort will help put a bright spotlight on recent high court decisions, including the 2022 ruling stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion, by the conservative-majority court that includes three justices appointed by Trump.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in a Sunday interview with CNN’s State of the Union that Biden’s reform push is about reminding Americans that ‘when they vote in November, the Supreme Court is on the ballot.’
She added: ‘That is a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and to vote for Democrats in both the Senate and the House.’
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pushed back that Democrats didn’t complain when a more liberal-leaning court ‘was pumping out opinions they liked.’
‘Only when we brought constitutional balance back from having a conservative court was the court a threat to the country,’ Graham said Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation.
‘What’s been a threat to the country is an out-of-control liberal court issuing opinions that basically take over every phase of American life based on nine people’s judgment.’
A security guard walks down the steps of the US Supreme Court in DC on July 19, 2024
The announcement marks a remarkable evolution for Biden, who as a candidate had been wary of calls to reform the high court.
But over the course of his presidency, he has become increasingly vocal about his belief that the court has abandoned mainstream constitutional interpretation.
Last week, he announced during an Oval Office speech that he would pursue Supreme Court reform during his final months in office, calling it ‘critical to our democracy.’
Harris, in her unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, had expressed being open to a conversation about expanding the nine-member court. The proposals unveiled on Monday do not include such an effort, which is something Biden as a candidate viewed skeptically.
As a vice presidential candidate, Harris notably dodged questions about her earlier stance on the issue during her October 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence.
The Harris campaign and aides to the vice president did not respond to queries about Harris’ involvement in shaping the Biden proposal and whether she would pursue any other court reform efforts should she be elected.
The White House in a statement said, ‘Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress and empowering the American people to prevent the abuse of Presidential power, restore faith in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the guardrails of democracy.’
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