US President Joe Biden has unveiled proposals to reform the Supreme Court, calling on Congress to impose term limits on justices and impose new ethics rules.
Biden outlined his plans for the Supreme Court in an opinion piece, saying they are needed to “restore trust and accountability to the court and our democracy.”
The reforms, which would need to be passed by Congress, include setting Supreme Court justices’ terms at 18 years and establishing a stricter ethics code for them, similar to that governing federal judges.
“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its High Court,” he wrote.
“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 make-up of the court for generations to come.”
Joe Biden
The stricter, enforceable rules on conduct that Biden called for would require justices to disclose gifts, refrain from political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial interest.
Also, Biden called for a constitutional amendment to remove immunity for crimes committed by a President while in office.
The proposed amendment, titled the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” comes after the supreme court’s ruling earlier this month that Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” he committed as President.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law,” Biden noted in his opinion piece..
“Not the President of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one,” added Biden, who previously had been wary of calls to reform the court.
“We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power. We can and must restore the public’s faith in the Supreme Court. We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy.”
Joe Biden
U.S Vice President and presumptive Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris endorsed Joe Biden’s push for supreme court reforms.
“President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the supreme court,” she said in a statement.
“Yet today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the supreme court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.
“These popular reforms will help to restore confidence in the court, strengthen our democracy and ensure no one is above the law.”
Kamala Harris
Joe Biden is expected to speak about his new supreme court reform proposals at an address later at the LBJ presidential library in Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
House Speaker Calls Biden’s Supreme Court Reform Proposals “Dead On Arrival”
However, Mike Johnson, the Republican House Speaker, warned that President Joe Biden’s proposals to reform the supreme court will be “dead on arrival” in the House.
Johnson, in a statement, said that President Biden’s proposal to “radically overhaul the US supreme court would tilt the balance of power and erode not only the rule of law, but the American people’s faith in our system of justice.”
“This proposal is the logical conclusion to the Biden-Harris administration and congressional Democrats’ ongoing efforts to delegitimize the supreme court. Their calls to expand and pack the court will soon resume.
“It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the court’s recent decisions.”
Mike Johnson
“This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris administration is dead on arrival in the House,” he asserted.
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