WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Monday called for sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, including legislation to impose 18-year term limits and enforce ethics rules for justices.
He also supported passing a new constitutional amendment to limit presidential immunity, a direct response to the Supreme Court's ruling this month that former President Donald Trump is protected from criminal prosecution for actions he took in his “official” capacity as president.
Biden formally announced his position during a speech Monday afternoon at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, just eight days after withdrawing from the 2024 election.
“I have great respect for our institution, for the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution, and what is happening right now violates that principle,” Biden said in a speech in Austin, Texas. “Extremism is undermining public confidence in the decisions of the Supreme Court.”
The move marks a major shift for Biden, who has so far resisted any structural changes to the nation's highest court.
Though Biden himself is no longer a candidate, he has made the Supreme Court a central issue in his remaining six months as president, giving the new Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, a hot topic to campaign on and seeking to energize progressive voters and others who have become increasingly skeptical of the court.
But Biden refrained from calling for expanding the size of the Supreme Court, a popular proposal among progressives as a way to counter the current conservative supermajority.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that a president cannot be prosecuted for “official acts” committed while in office. The ruling stems from the Department of Justice's lawsuit against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Supreme Court ruled that a president can be prosecuted for non-official criminal acts.
The “No Person is Above the Law Amendment” provides that the Constitution does not grant immunity from federal criminal prosecution, trial, conviction, or sentence by virtue of having been President.
Biden, who served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, wrote that as a senator, vice president and president he has overseen more Supreme Court nominations than anyone currently living.
supreme court:Clarence Thomas' defense of gifts from Republican billionaires has raised further questions among critics.
Speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Biden specifically criticized a recent Supreme Court ruling that found that “official” acts by a president are protected but not actions taken by a candidate.
“We are a nation of laws. We are not a nation of kings or dictators,” Biden said.
But with Congress divided, none of the bills have a chance of passing, as 60 votes would be needed in the Senate to break a Republican filibuster.
Harris, who is set to formally become the Democratic nominee next month, said in a statement Monday that she supports the proposed changes because the Supreme Court faces a “clear crisis of confidence” from the American people.
“Throughout our nation's history, confidence in the United States Supreme Court has been crucial to achieving equal justice under the law. President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court,” she said. “These public reforms will help restore confidence in the Supreme Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure that no one is above the law.”
Republicans were quick to denounce the president's proposal.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in a statement that the amendment “will die upon reaching the House of Representatives.”
“It is indicative that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our country since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Supreme Court's most recent decisions,” he said in a statement.
During his speech in Austin, Biden slammed the House speaker, saying, “I think his idea was bad from the start.”
The overwhelming majority of conservatives
Biden's effort is an attack by a Democratic president that has infuriated the left amid an increasingly tense relationship with a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority that recently overturned decisions that legalized abortion nationwide, blocked Biden's efforts to end affirmative action in college admissions, cancel student loan debt for college students and limited the federal government's power to fight climate change.
President Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, while President Biden appointed only one, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Congress approved presidential term limits more than 75 years ago, and Biden said the same should be done for the Supreme Court.
Term limits would help ensure regular turnover of Supreme Court members and reduce the chance of a single president having an undue influence on future generations, he says.
Biden said he supports a system in which the president would appoint justices every two years and have them serve on the Supreme Court for 18 years.
The third proposed change includes a binding code of conduct for the High Court.
It would require judges 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.
In July, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for alleged ethics violations and political bias.
Thomas sparked a fierce ethics battle in court last year when it emerged he had failed to declare millions of dollars' worth of luxury trips and other gifts he had received from billionaire friends.
“Justices Thomas and Alito's repeated failure to disclose that over decades they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business ties to the courts is clearly unlawful,” the Bronx Democrat said.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswami is White House correspondent for USA Today. You can follow her on X (old Twitter) @SwapnaVenugopal.
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