Washington — President Biden unveiled a long-awaited reform proposal for the U.S. Supreme Court, calling on Congress to set term limits and an ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He also urged lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
The White House on Monday detailed the contours of Mr. Biden’s Supreme Court proposal, a proposal that appears unlikely to win approval in a closely divided Congress with just 99 days until Election Day.
Democrats, however, hope it will help focus voters as they consider their choices. a close electionPresumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to frame her race against Republican former President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos.”
The White House is seeking to exploit growing Democratic outrage over the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and has issued opinions overturning landmark decisions on right to abortion and federal regulatory powers that have endured for decades.
Liberals have also expressed dismay at revelations of what they see as shady dealings and at decisions by some members of the court’s conservative wing that suggest their impartiality is compromised.
“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden said in an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post. “What is happening now is not normal and undermines public confidence in the Court’s decisions, including those that impact individual liberties. We now find ourselves in a breach.”
“That is why, in the face of growing threats to America’s democratic institutions, I am calling for three bold reforms to restore trust and accountability in the Court and our democracy.”
Mr. Biden noted that he had “served as a United States senator for 36 years, including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I oversaw more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president, and president than anyone alive today. I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers.”
The president planned to speak about his proposal later Monday during a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
Mr. Biden is calling for the elimination of lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which the sitting president would nominate a justice every two years to serve for 18 years on the Supreme Court. He argues that term limits would help ensure that the composition of the court changes with some regularity and add some predictability to the nomination process.
He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing an ethics code for judges that would require them 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.
Mr. Biden is also calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity decision, which determined that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution.
The decision extended the deadline in Washington’s criminal case against Trump, who is accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, and all but ended the former president’s prospects of being tried before the November election.
The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, provides that Congress can pass a bill changing the compensation of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, but that such a change cannot take effect until after the next congressional elections in November.
Trump has denounced judicial reform as a desperate attempt by Democrats to “play referee.”
“Democrats are trying to interfere in the presidential election and destroy our judicial system by attacking their political opponent, the ME, and our honorable Supreme Court. We must fight for our fair and independent courts and protect our country,” Trump said on his Truth Social website earlier this month.
Questions about the ethics of the Court are growing after revelations about certain judges, notably Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips from Republican megadonor.
Judge Samuel Alito rejects calls to withdraw from Supreme Court cases The case was brought against Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants despite controversy over provocative flags displayed at his home, which some said suggested sympathy for those accused of storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito claims the flags were displayed by his wife.
Trump then praised Alito on his social media for having “shown INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE and GUTS” by refusing to step down. “All American judges, magistrates and leaders should have such COURAGE.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama administration appointee, has come under scrutiny after it was revealed that her staff often encouraged public institutions that housed her to buy copies of her memoirs or children’s books.
Democrats say Biden’s effort will help shine a spotlight on recent high court decisions, including the 2022 ruling stripping away constitutional protections for women when it comes to abortion, issued by the conservative-majority court that includes three justices appointed by Trump.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Biden’s reform is intended to remind Americans that “when they vote in November, the Supreme Court will be on the ballot.”
She added: “This is a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and to vote for Democrats in the Senate and the House.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina countered that Democrats don’t complain when a more liberal court “issues opinions that they like.”
“It was only when we restored constitutional balance by having a conservative Court that the Court became a threat to the country,” Graham said. said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “What threatens the country is an out-of-control liberal court that issues opinions that take control of every phase of American life based on the judgment of nine people.”
The announcement marks a remarkable shift for Mr. Biden, who as a candidate had been wary of calls to reform the Supreme Court. But over the course of his presidency, he has increasingly expressed his belief that the court has abandoned traditional constitutional interpretation.
Last week, he announced in an Oval Office speech that he would pursue Supreme Court reform in his final months in office, calling it “crucial to our democracy.”
Harris, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, had said she was open to discussing expanding the nine-member Supreme Court. The proposals unveiled Monday do not include such an effort, something Biden as a candidate viewed with skepticism.
As a vice presidential candidate, Harris notably dodged questions about her previous position on the issue during her October 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence.
Harris’ campaign and aides to the vice president did not respond to questions about Harris’ involvement in crafting the Biden proposal and whether she would pursue other justice reform efforts if elected.
The White House said in a statement that the president “and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress and empowering the American people to prevent abuses of presidential power, restore confidence in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the safeguards of democracy.”
