President Joe Biden 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, reported The Associated Press. He also is pressing lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
The White House on Monday detailed the contours of Biden’s
court proposal, one that appears to have little chance of being approved by a
closely divided Congress with just 99 days to go before Election Day.
Still, Democrats hope it will help to focus voters as they
consider their choices in a tight election. The likely 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 looking to tap into the growing outrage
among Democrats about the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issuing
opinions that overturned
landmark decisions on abortion rights and federal
regulatory powers that stood for decades.
Liberals also have expressed dismay over revelations about
what they say are questionable relationships and decisions by some members of
the conservative wing of the court that suggest their impartiality is
compromised.
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of
powers,” Biden argues in a Washington Post op-ed set to be published Monday.
“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.”
The president planned to speak about his proposal later
Monday during an address at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to
mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
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 also is calling on Congress to pass a constitutional
amendment reversing the Supreme Court’s recent landmark
immunity ruling that determined former presidents have broad 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.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.”
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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