Biden unveils plan to limit Supreme Court terms, says US faces ‘breach’ as ​​public trust declines

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is unveiling a long-awaited proposal for changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling on Congress to establish term limits and a code of ethics for the court’s nine justices. He is also pushing lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.

The White House on Monday detailed the outline of Biden’s proposal to create the court, which appears to have little chance of approval by a closely divided Congress 99 days before Election Day.

Still, Democrats hope it will facilitate voters focus as they weigh their choices in a tight election. The presumptive Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has sought to portray her race against Republican former President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos.”

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The White House is looking to capitalize on growing Democratic outrage over the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issuing opinions that groundbreaking decisions overturned about abortion rights and federal regulatory powers which has survived for decades.

Liberals also expressed concern about the revelations about what they said were questionable affiliations and decisions of some members of the court’s conservative wing, which could indicate that their impartiality is at risk.

“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden argues in a Washington Post editorial to be published Monday. “What is happening now is not normal and undermines public confidence in court decisions, including those that affect personal liberties. Now we face a violation.”

The president planned to unveil the proposal Monday during a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

Biden is calling for the elimination of lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which a sitting president would appoint a judge every two years who would serve 18 years on the court. He says term limits would help ensure the court’s composition changes with some regularity and add some predictability to the nomination process.

He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing a code of judicial ethics that would require judges to disclose donations, refrain from public political activities and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have a financial or other conflict of interest.

Biden is also calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would overturn the recent Supreme Court ruling. groundbreaking ruling on immunity It has been established that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

The decision extended a delay in the criminal case in Washington against Trump over the charges he made conspired to reverse his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. and all but eliminated any chances that the former president would be tried before the November election.

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The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, says Congress can pass a law changing the salaries of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, but any such change cannot take effect until after the November elections for members of the House of Representatives.

Trump has slammed the criminal justice reform bill, calling it a desperate attempt by Democrats to “game the judges.”

“The Democrats are trying to interfere in the presidential election and destroy our justice 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 wrote on his Truth Social website earlier this month.

Questions about court ethics are increasingly being raised following the disclosure of information about some judges, in that Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips from a major Republican Party donor.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, appointed during the Obama administration, faced criticism after it emerged that her staff frequently harassed public institutions where she had been buy copies of her memoirs or children’s books.

Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls to leave Supreme Court cases involving Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants, despite the uproar over provocative flags displayed at his home that some said suggested sympathy for those accused of storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito says the flags were displayed by his wife.

Trump at that time I congratulated Alito on his social media page for “showing INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE and ‘COURAGE’” by refusing to step aside. “All judges, justices and leaders in the US should have SUCH COURAGE.”

Democrats say Biden’s actions will facilitate shed lithe on recent Supreme Court decisions, including a 2022 ruling. depriving women of constitutional protections regarding abortionby the conservative-majority court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Biden’s reforms are intended to remind Americans that “when they vote in November, the Supreme Court will be on the ballot.”

She added: “That’s a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and for Democrats in both the Senate and the House.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina responded that Democrats did not complain when the more liberal-leaning court “expressed opinions they liked.”

“It wasn’t until we rebalanced the Constitution from a conservative court that the court became a threat to the country,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The threat to the country is an unchecked liberal court issuing opinions that essentially take over every phase of American life based on the judgment of nine people.”

The announcement marks a remarkable evolution for Biden, who as a candidate was wary of calls for Supreme Court reform but has become increasingly vocal over the course of his presidency in his belief that the court has abandoned the prevailing constitutional interpretation.

Last week, he announced during an Oval Office speech that he would continue to reform the Supreme Court in his final months in office, calling it “crucial to our democracy.”

Harris, in her unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, expressed openness to talk of expanding the nine-member court. The proposals unveiled Monday do not include such an effort, something Biden as a candidate has viewed with skepticism.

As a vice presidential candidate, Harris is particularly Avoided Questions about her previous stance on the issue during a debate with Vice President Mike Pence in October 2020.

Harris’ campaign and the vice president’s advisers did not respond to questions about Harris’ role in shaping Biden’s proposal or whether she would pursue other judicial reform efforts if elected.

The White House said in a statement: “Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress to empower the American people to prevent abuse of presidential power, restore confidence in the Supreme Court and strengthen the guardrails of democracy.”