Biden unveils his proposals to reform the Supreme Court
The president is calling for term limits, a binding ethics code and a constitutional amendment to make clear "no one is above the law" — not even former presidents.
President Biden on Monday unveiled three proposals aimed at reforming the United States Supreme Court to combat what he called the “increasing threats to America’s democratic institutions” aimed at restoring “trust and accountability to the court and our democracy.”
What are they?
1. The ‘No One Is Above the Law Amendment’
In an op-ed for the Washington Post outlining his proposals, Biden said he is proposing a constitutional amendment that “would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
“I share our Founders’ belief that the president’s power is limited, not absolute,” Biden said. “We are a nation of laws — not of kings or dictators.”
The proposal comes less than a month after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office — a ruling that threatened to halt the ongoing criminal cases against former President Donald Trump.
2. Term limits for justices
“We have had term limits for presidents for nearly 75 years,” Biden argued in the op-ed. “We should have the same for Supreme Court justices.”
Under the president’s proposal, a president “would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.”
“Term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity,” Biden said. “That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary. It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come.”
3. Code of conduct
Under Biden’s proposal, justices “would be required 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.”
Currently, all federal judges in the United States are bound by an enforceable code of conduct. But for those on the Supreme Court, the ethics code is voluntary and self-enforced. The proposal follows the revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and secret consulting fees from conservative billionaires and conservative judicial activists.
Having a binding ethics code for the Supreme Court, Biden said, is “common sense.”
What are the chances of getting them passed?
The proposals have an uphill battle in a divided Congress, particularly in an election year — and from a president who is not running for reelection.
Still, Biden plans to make the case for them in a speech at the at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas, on Monday afternoon to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
And in his op-ed, Biden pointed out that “all three of these reforms are supported by a majority of Americans — as well as conservative and liberal constitutional scholars.”
“We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power,” Biden added. “We can and must restore the public’s faith in the Supreme Court. We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy.”
