President Joe Biden unveiled his plan for “three bold reforms” for the Supreme Court on Monday in an alleged attempt to “restore trust and accountability to the court and our democracy.”
Biden argued for his points of reforming the high court and reversing a recent decision made by the court in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. The president, who served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009, argued for term limits, a reformed Supreme Court ethics code, and wiping away immunity for the president for any acts.
“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” Biden wrote. “We now stand in a breach.”
Biden’s first proposal calls for a constitutional amendment, titled the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” which would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
The amendment would reverse a recent Supreme Court decision determining the president is immune from prosecution for official acts, but not unofficial acts, committed while in the White House. It would require approval from two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification from three-fourths of states to pass, making it highly unlikely.
Biden also proposed term limits on the Supreme Court, suggesting 18-year terms so that a new justice may be appointed every two years.
“Term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity. 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,” Biden wrote.
Under his 3 1/2 years in the White House, Biden has only had the chance to nominate one justice to the Supreme Court, while his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had three appointments.
The presidency is limited to two full terms, or 10 years total, under the 22nd Amendment, while Congress and the Supreme Court have no term limits.
Biden also called the current ethics code “weak and self-enforced” while calling for a stronger ethics code that would make justices “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.”
Biden wrote that “we can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power,” along with restoring “the public’s faith in the Supreme Court.”
“In America, no one is above the law,” he wrote. “In America, the people rule.”
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Biden has been at odds with the Supreme Court for his entire presidency, as the Republican-appointed majority court has struck down several of his actions as unconstitutional, such as his student loan plan and his attempted COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The high court’s decisions overturning Roe v. Wade and affirmative action also angered Biden, among other opinions delivered.
The plan formulated by the president has garnered criticism over separation-of-powers problems. With less than six months remaining in Biden’s presidency and a divided Congress, it is unlikely any of the proposed efforts will see congressional approval.
