WASHINGTON — Before he leaves the Oval Office in January, President Joe Biden wants Congress to consider a constitutional amendment that would restore criminal liability for U.S. presidents in response to a recent Supreme Court ruling decision granting the Director General broad immunity.
Biden on Monday announced the Not Above the Law Amendment and endorsed other changes to the nation’s highest court, potentially setting the tone and priorities for the Democrat’s final months in office after he dropped out of the 2024 race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The proposal, released by the White House without text and detailed by Biden in the Washington Post op edcame as public confidence in the Supreme Court declined following recent ethics scandals and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which went against conventional wisdom on abortion.
Biden is calling on Congress to pass an 18-year term limit for judges, under which the president would appoint a new judge every two years, and to approve enforceable conduct and ethics rules that would require disclosure of gifts, prohibit public political activities and ensure that a judge or his or her spouse recuses himself or herself from cases in which the judge or his or her spouse has a financial or political interest.
Biden’s plan to “restore faith” in the nation’s highest court is likely to face obstacles in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority and any reforms could struggle to secure the necessary 60 votes. The constitutional amendment would also need to pass three-quarters of the states.
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s proposal “dead from the start.”
Writing in the Washington Post op edBiden said the lack of legal repercussions for former President Donald Trump’s role in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, intended to stop the peaceful transition of power from one elected administration to another, is “just the beginning.”
“The only limitations are those imposed by the occupant of the Oval Office,” he wrote.
He also referred to the court’s recent behavior. uncovered by ProPublica investigative journalists — including gifts and luxury trips given to the judges by political donors — as cause for concern.
“What is happening now is not normal and undermines public confidence in court decisions, including those that impact personal liberties. We now stand in violation,” Biden wrote.
Biden is expected to deliver a speech on his plan Monday afternoon during an event marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Texas.
Public Citizen, a group that advocates for changes to the Supreme Court, issued a statement Monday praising Biden’s proposal.
“The precipitous decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court both undermines the legitimacy of the Court and threatens the legitimacy of the entire judicial branch,” wrote Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the organization. “It is also crucial that we repair the damage done by SCOTUS’s overreaching ruling on presidential immunity and ensure that no person — including the president — is above the law.”
Johnson criticized Biden’s announcement as a “radical overhaul” and “the logical conclusion of the ongoing efforts by the Biden-Harris administration and congressional Democrats to delegitimize the Supreme Court.”
“It is significant that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our country since its founding simply because they disagree with some recent Supreme Court decisions,” the Louisiana Republican said in a statement Monday.
However, various acts of Congress have changed the court since the country’s founding, including the number of seats on the court, which has varied from five to 10. The number of seats on the court was set at nine shortly after the Civil War, According to to the court’s historical information, which details the changes. In 1925, a statute gave judges the power to decide whether to hear a case, also known as certiorari.
The Republican National Committee issued a statement accusing Biden of being “Kamala’s plan to pack the Supreme Court with far-left, radical justices who will make decisions based on politics, not law — and shield her dangerously liberal policy positions from scrutiny if she is elected.”
Democrats criticize court
Democratic lawmakers are already moving to pass a code of conduct that could apply to the Supreme Court.
Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, another Democratic member of the committee, introduced legislation last month that would prohibit judges from accepting gifts worth more than $50, according to their offices.
Two legislators hosted roundtable in early June that sharply criticized the court after Chief Justice John Roberts refused to act when The New York Times revealed that an upside-down U.S. flag – as a sign of protest – flew in front of Justice Samuel Alito’s Virginia home shortly after the January 6 riots.
Progressive members of the House of Representatives fail persuaded Alito recused himself from two cases related to January 6, including a case involving Trump’s appeal of immunity from charges that he undermined the federal election.
Supreme Court Ethics Bill sponsored by Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse advanced a year ago he was expelled from the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines but did not receive a vote at the meeting.
